What is the Shared Responsibility model?
The Shared Responsibility model is a security model and is critically important to understand when operating resources within a public or hybrid cloud environment.
You should understand when it is your responsibility to provide the appropriate level of security and where it's not your responsibility but that of the cloud services provider.
This responsibility level may dictate what cloud computing services models you decide to deploy, such as IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS, to determine how much control and responsibility you must provide or hand off to the cloud services provider.
There are three levels of responsibility to be considered:
- Responsibilities that the consumer of the cloud services always retains
- Responsibilities that can vary by the resource type
- Responsibilities that will transfer to the cloud services provider:
Figure 1.3 – Shared Responsibility model
This security model illustration aims to visually set out the division or separation of responsibilities between the consumer of the cloud resources and the cloud services provider itself.
The most critical to be aware of is the responsibilities that the consumer of cloud services always retains and your responsibilities to secure and protect.
