Security requirements in a federated cloud networking architecture

Cloud federation enables cloud providers to collaborate in order to create a large pool of virtual resources at multiple network locations. Different types of federated cloud architectures have been proposed and implemented up to now. In this context, an effective, agile and secure federation of cloud networking resources is a key aspect for the deployment of federated applications. This paper presents the preliminary security requirements analyzed in the H2020 BEACON Project that aims at researching techniques to federate cloud network resources and defining an integrated cloud management layer that enables an efficient and secure deployment of federated cloud applications. The paper analyses both how to protect the cloud networking infrastructure, and how cloud users can customize the network security for their distributed applications.