The principle of minimalism states that a server should be designed and configured with the least possible complexity. There should be no unneeded software, no unneeded hardware, and no unneeded users. In short, minimalism says that less is more. The ways in which minimalism can be applied to Cloud Server security include:

• A minimum of open firewall ports
• A minimum of installed/running services and applications
• A minimum of users on the system
• A minimum of user privileges
• A minimum of logs kept on the system (i.e. not moved off)
• A minimum of unnecessary upgrades

The rest of our security articles will explain more thoroughly the ways in which minimalism should play into the setup of various features.