The relationship and all service obligations between a cloud provider and a customer are governed by the contract or Service Level Agreement (SLA). In a standard multi-tenant cloud environment, a single physical drive often stores data for multiple customers (resource pooling). Therefore, physically destroying a drive upon a single customer's request is operationally infeasible as it would destroy other customers' data. Such a specific and costly service as dedicated hardware disposal must be explicitly negotiated and stipulated in the contract, which is typically available only for private or dedicated hosting models. Without this contractual provision, the provider is not obligated to fulfill the request and will instead follow their standard, secure data sanitization procedures.

A. "Hardware disposal insurance" is not a standard industry term; service obligations are defined by the contract, not a specific type of insurance.

B. Cryptographic erasure is a valid data sanitization method, but it does not fulfill the customer's specific request for physical destruction.

D. Degaussing is a data sanitization method for magnetic media, but it is not the physical destruction that the customer specifically requested.

1. Cloud Security Alliance. (2017). Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing v4.0. Domain 2: Governance and Enterprise Risk Management

p. 31. The document states

"The contract is the only guarantee of any level of service or commitment from the provider

" underscoring that specific actions like physical destruction must be contractually defined.

2. Mell

P.

& Grance

T. (2011). The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (NIST SP 800-145). p. 2

"Essential Characteristics." The concept of "Resource Pooling" explains that provider resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers

making the destruction of a shared drive for a single customer impractical without a specific contractual arrangement for dedicated resources.

3. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2014). Special Publication 800-88 Rev. 1

Guidelines for Media Sanitization. Section 2.3

"Destroy." This publication defines "Destroy" as a distinct category of sanitization

separate from "Purge" (e.g.

degaussing) and "Clear" (e.g.

cryptographic erase)

confirming that the customer's request is for a specific action that may differ from the provider's standard procedures.

4. ISO/IEC 27017:2015. Information technology — Security techniques — Code of practice for information security controls based on ISO/IEC 27002 for cloud services. Annex A

Control A.8.3.2

"Disposal of media." This standard advises cloud customers to seek assurance on the provider's disposal methods

implying these terms are part of the service agreement.