Title: Agent-based approach for identity and access management in the inter-cloud environments

Authors: Manoj V. Thomas; K. Chandra Sekaran

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal, Karnataka, 575025, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal, Karnataka, 575025, India

Abstract: Nowadays, considerable attention has been given by the researchers in the field of cloud computing to the emerging inter-cloud computing paradigm, where different cloud service providers collaborate or federate to achieve better QoS and cost efficiency. In this context, in order to prevent the unauthorised access of the distributed system components, authentication and authorisation functions are to be enforced effectively. In this paper, the agent-based approach for the identity and access management in the inter-cloud environments for mediating the access requests of cloud consumers is discussed. We make an analysis of the various issues in the inter-cloud formation and inter-cloud management, considering the present day requirements of this dynamic distributed computing paradigm. The need for implementing dynamic policy conflicts management and break-glass mechanism in the inter-cloud environment is highlighted. Also, a few open issues in the area of identity and access management in the inter-cloud environment are also discussed.

Keywords: access control; agents; authentication; authorisation; break-glass mechanism; cloud computing; federation; agent-based systems; multi-agent systems; MAS; identity management; access management; inter-cloud environments.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMCC.2014.064144

International Journal of Trust Management in Computing and Communications, 2014 Vol.2 No.2, pp.125 - 149

Received: 02 Nov 2013
Accepted: 06 Feb 2014
Published online: 10 Sep 2014 *

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