CCSP Domain 3: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security

Introduction

The Certified Cloud Security Professional certification, or CCSP, is a certification hosted by the joint effort of (ISC)2 and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). This exciting credential is designed for cloud-based information security professionals and ensures that the certification holder has acquired the requisite skills, knowledge and abilities in cloud implementation, security design, controls, operations and compliance with applicable regulations.

The CCSP certification exam comprises six domains: Architectural Concepts and Design Requirements, Cloud Data Security, Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security, Operations, Cloud Application Security and Legal and Compliance. This article will detail the Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security domain of the CCSP exam and what candidates preparing for the CCSP certification can expect on the exam.

The Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security domain of CCSP currently accounts for 20% of the material covered by the CCSP certification exam.

Below, you will find an exploration of the different subsections of this domain and what information you can expect to be covered on the CCSP certification exam

3.1 Comprehend Cloud Infrastructure Components

Cloud infrastructure is composed of many parts, each with their own significance. These components include physical environment, virtualization, network and communications, storage, compute and the management plane.

Physical Environment

While the lay person may think that information being “in the cloud” means that it is in some virtual “other dimension,” the cloud has a physical environment. This physical environment has a low tolerance for failure and many considerations that need to be addressed for the physical environment to be suitable for cloud infrastructure.

Data Center

Data centers are the physical environment where the cloud infrastructure resides. There are many physical environment aspects that need to be considered such as:

• Appropriate floor space
• Appropriate rack space/cages
• Any other colocation concerns on a case-by-case basis
• Geographic considerations: Availability of (Read more...)