**3. Evidence collection**

Evidence collection plays a vital role to identify and access the data from various sources in the cloud environment for forensic investigation. The evidence is no longer stored in a single physical host and their data are distributed across a different geographical area. So, if a crime occurs, it is very difficult to identify the evidence. The evidence is collected from various sources such as router, switches, server, hosts, VMs, browser artifacts, and through internal storage media such as hard disk, RAM images, physical memory, etc., which are under forensic investigation. Evidence is also collected through the analysis of log files, cloud storage data collection, Web browser artifacts, and physical memory analysis.
