Trusting Cloud Service Providers: Trust Phases and a Taxonomy of Trust Factors

A large and rapidly increasing number of services are offered through the Internet, in the cloud. This enables users to utilize services remotely, without even knowing the service provider. However, before putting their trust in a provider, users need to be able to evaluate how trustworthy a service is. This can be a daunting task, as many factors need to be considered and analyzed. The current paper aims at helping the selection of a service provider by presenting a taxonomy of trust factors and outlining its application in practical scenarios. A brief description of a framework built on this taxonomy is also given.