SYSTEM MAPPINGAI SECURITY ENGINEERING

Cloud vs self-hosted threat models

Cloud-hosted and self-hosted AI shift risk to different boundaries.

WHY IT MATTERS

Cloud systems emphasize API credentials, third-party data handling and provider dependency; self-hosted systems emphasize runtime, GPU, model files and local service hardening.

ENTERPRISE EXAMPLE

A managed model + vector DB has outbound/data-residency risk; a vLLM + Milvus stack has local network and service-identity risk.

SECURITY DECISION

Which security control should be explicit?

REMEMBERArchitecture choice changes the security owner—not the need for security.
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