How to Use Biometrics for Your Cloud Infrastructure – Part 3

Introduction

In the last blog, we introduced what the “Infrastructure as a Service”, or “IaaS” is.

This can be deemed to the be the first layer of a Cloud Infrastructure.

In this piece, we examine the second layer of the Cloud, which is known as the “Platform as a Service”, or “PaaS” is. We also review how Biometrics can be used to secure this layer.

The PaaS

The second deployment model for the Cloud Computing Infrastructure is known as “Platform as a Service”, or “PaaS” for short. It can be specifically defined as:

“A complete development and deployment environment in the cloud, with resources that enable you to deliver everything from simple cloud-based apps to sophisticated, cloud-enabled enterprise applications . . . PaaS includes infrastructure—servers, storage, and networking—but also middleware, development tools, business intelligence (BI) services, database management systems, and more.”

(SOURCE: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/what-is-paas/)

How Can Biometrics Be Used to Protect the PaaS?

As can be seen from the definition, the PaaS consists of both the hardware (primarily the servers) and software aspects.

So, in other words, it is essentially yet another server but unlike the IaaS platform, it also consists of many types of software as well.

In order to protect the server aspect of the PaaS, the same methodology that was used to protect the IaaS can also be used again in this instance.

But in most cases, the PaaS servers will be stored in yet another separate area of the Data Center (away from the IaaS servers).

In these instances, Biometrics can also be used to protect the PaaS servers.

For example, once the employee has gained access through the 1^st point of entry (via the Hand Geometry Scanner), he or she can then gain access to the 2^nd point of entry (this is the area where the PaaS servers are stored) by having their identity confirmed by a Fingerprint Scanner, which is illustrated below: