Survey of cloud server geolocating techniques

Abstract

Every cloud data center has a geographical location, which is known to, at least, its owner. Still, it is a challenge for a cloud customer to discover indisputably the location of the data center, which hosts an active cloud based service and its data. Knowing the location is necessary to assess that pertinent geographical obligations of service level agreements and legal requirements are fulfilled. For example, several countries have legislation that denies processing private data of its citizens in countries that do not have compliant legislation. This paper presents existing technologies that can be used to resolve and assess the geographical location of a cloud servers.

Towards Trusted Location SpecificInformation for Cloud Servers

“…An earlier survey of geolocating techniques [5] lists many alternatives but most do not qualify, because they add to server hardware manufacturing costs (REQ-1.1).…”

“…In this paper, we extend upon previously published work [5], which focused on investigating the legal obligations to knowing the location of data in cloud computing applications and on applicability of existing technology to resolve the problem. In the earlier work, we also identified the key stake holders and design constraints.…”

“…The data sovereignty concept pinpoints the applicable data protection legislation, which impacts on data security. On one hand, data protection laws restrict legal geographical locations of data instances to those that have compliant legislation [5]. On the other hand, laws protecting societies against threats, like terrorist acts, may allow authorities to legally investigate suspicious foreign data stored in or bypassing territory of their country.…”