This practical and didactic text/reference discusses the leading edge of secure cloud computing, exploring the essential concepts and principles, tools, techniques and deployment models in this field. Enlightening perspectives are presented by an international collection of pre-eminent authorities in cloud security assurance from both academia and industry. Topics and features: · Describes the important general concepts and principles of security assurance in cloud-based environments · Presents applications and approaches to cloud security that illustrate the current state of the art · Reviews pertinent issues in relation to challenges that prevent organizations moving to cloud architectures · Provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings ·