Secure Cloud Designing for GIS: A Solution for the power Distribution Industry

Cloud computing is a networked computing model that provides a relatively new approach to storing, processing, and using information. A GIS is a structured set of hardware, software, and information that has been designed to create, store, update, process, analyze, and present a variety of geographic information. The combination of cloud computing and GIS improves efficiency and reduces costs in the process of implementing and executing these systems. The electricity distribution industry, with its smart grid approach, increasingly needs access to spatial information in a comprehensive and secure communication platform. In this article, while examining the necessity of creating GIS subsystems in electricity distribution companies, its advantages and disadvantages are expressed and a secure architecture is proposed to implement this solution. The proposed architecture is designed in four layers of user, application, configuration and infrastructure, and physical layer, and a management plane. On the management plane, security, compression and classification modules are provided. Given the importance of security in the GIS cloud for the power distribution industry, the focus of the article is on the security module and its components. Finally, the proposed architecture is analyzed and its advantages and disadvantages compared to other architectures are presented. The presence of a management plane with an independent security module that takes into account all the requirements of a standard security operations center is an architectural advantage presented in this article.