CloudWatcher: Network Security Monitoring Using OpenFlow in Dynamic Cloud Networks (or: How to Provide Security Monitoring as a Service in Clouds?)

Cloud computing is becoming a popular paradigm. Many recent new services are based on cloud environments, and a lot of people are using cloud networks. Since many diverse hosts and network configurations coexist in a cloud network, it is essential to protect each of them in the cloud network from threats. To do this, basically, the authors can employ existing network security devices, but applying them to a cloud network requires more considerations for its complexity, dynamism, and diversity. In this paper, they propose a new framework, CloudWatcher, which provides monitoring services for large and dynamic cloud networks.