ITC561 Cloud Computing:Cloud Strategy of SoftArc Engineering Ltd
Questions:
Task
SoftArc Engineering Ltd is a civil engineering company which works across Australia as well as in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. The company is considering the following strategic proposal:
- They plan to close down the Brisbane data centre rather than update or replace the older infrastructure. The existing data and services in that data centre would be moved to the Sydney data centre, which has the most up to date infrastructure, as well as capacity to expand.
- They plan to move all their Web Services into the Cloud in order to provide an increased level of HA (High Availability) as well as a better degree of flexibility in supplying data to their customers and employees.
- They also plan to use the Cloud Infrastructure to increase flexibility and availability for some of the LoB (Line of Business) applications that will continue to run on their own internal infrastructure. However, they are hoping to take advantage of the Cloud infrastructure to help manage and balance demand on internal resource use.
The Board of SoftArc Engineering is contemplating this strategy as a way to increase the company’s flexibility and responsiveness, particularly for its remote area and overseas operations. The Board also expects to achieve significant savings on the cost of maintaining their ICT infrastructure by closing the oldest existing data centre. This would entail retiring the infrastructure in that data centre rather than having to update it.
SoftArc Engineering has again approached you to advise them on this strategy. You have already advised SoftArc Engineering that this strategic approach will mean that they will need to design and operate a “Hybrid Cloud” methodology, where part of their data centre is “on premise” and another part in a Cloud.
SoftArc Engineering also plan to run a Risk and Security Workshop to assess the risks, security issues and possible methods of control that will be required with this “Hybrid Cloud” approach. You will be required to organise, run and facilitate this workshop.
The Board is also concerned about how this strategy will affect their BCP (Business Continuity Plan) and their backup and disaster recovery strategies.
Your task is to prepare a report for SoftArc Engineering that discusses the following:
- Describe which Cloud architectures you would employ to assist SoftArc Engineering meet the Board’s strategy?
- Describe each of the architectures that you would use, along with your reasons for deploying it.
- Describe the benefits and issues that would be the result of your deployment of these architectures.
- Describe the risks that you see associated with this new Hybrid Cloud strategy. You should name and describe each risk that you identify, and then describe a possible control for the risk. This may be presented in a tabular form.
- Describe the general Information Security steps and controls that you would recommend to the Board to secure the Hybrid Cloud. You will need to explain to the Board your reasons for recommending these particular security steps.
- Discuss briefly what you would recommend should be included in SoftArc Engineering’s BCP as a result of their adoption of a Hybrid Cloud approach. You will need to consider, as a minimum, the issues of application resilience, backup and disaster recovery in a Hybrid Cloud environment.
- Discuss the requirements that SoftArc Engineering will need to consider in order to conduct remote server administration, resource management and SLA management for it’s proposed IaaS and PaaS instances.(it may be useful to consider Morad and Dalbhanjan’s operational checklists for this section).
- The SoftArc Engineering board has decided, as an initial step, to move their SharePoint instance and their SQL Server 2012 Database servers to the AWS cloud in order to begin the migration process, and test their strategy.
- Describe the steps that you would include in the plan to migrate these services.
- What are the critical points and issues that you see occurring at each of these steps? Explain why you see these points or issues as critical.
Answers:
Introduction
The report is presenting description about the migration of web services within the concerned organization named SoftArc Engineering Ltd that operated their business over throughout Australia, Sydney as well as Papua New Guinea.
This report is elaborating important benefits ad issues involved within this migration process with respect to their fictional objectives and goals within their selected target market. The paper is focusing on the benefits and issues involved within the hybrid cloud strategy that is beig implemented within SoftArc.
1.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is chosen as the efficient cloud system architecture that will be mitigating all the issues that the organization is facing within their current infrastructure (Almorsy, Grundy & Müller, 2016). Therefore, for selecting this cloud based system architecture justification as well as the benefits and issues involved within this system architecture is being elaborated as follows:
1.1
Software as a Service is one of the effective architecture of cloud based infrastructure that is known as one software distribution model. This model provides the host applications to its users through a group of third party service providers who deploy ad deliver the services to the users (Demchenko et al. 2013). These services are brought to the users through the internet facility provided to the organizations as well as individual users. Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of three main categories of the cloud computing system architectures that are provided and delivered to the users. Software as a Service (SaaS) reduces the effort of organizations as well as individual for installing and running the applications within their own computer or data centers (Demchenko et al., 2013). This aspect reduced that expenditure required for hardware installation and other acquisitions required.
This model architecture of cloud based infrastructure is selected for SoftArc as this requires less time to be deployed within the system as well as organizational structure of the SoftArc. In addition to this after the installation is done the third party providers plays the main role in updating the data information stored within the infrastructure of the cloudy based services (Fischer et al., 2015). This model provides effective flexibility of services as well as the data and information stored within this architecture are easily available with respect to various functional demands and needs of the organization SoftArc.
1.2
Benefits of SaaS
Automatic Updates: Automatic updates are easily available within this system architecture with respect to the needs and fictional objectives of the cloud based infrastructure within any considered organizations.
Flexibilities: Flexibility is another benefit that is provided by the cloud based system architecture and SaaS is also capable of providing effective as well as flexible system architecture to the organizations (Flores, Srirama & Buyya, 2014).
Accessible Data sets: Accessibility from anywhere of the world is another important benefit of the SaaS infrastructure.
Challenges of SaaS
Security issues: Every cloud based infrastructure provides security issues within the considered infrastructure that operates within different zone of the operation within ay IT infrastructure.
Dependent on internet: This cloud based solutions require effective support of the internet for managing different updates within the information (Govindarajan et al., 2014). Therefore, SaaS also need internet support for managing different update activities involved within the system architecture of any organization.
2. Risks Associated with the New Hybrid Cloud Strategy
Risk Ranking Measures
Probability |
|
|
|
|
|
|
High |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
|
|
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
|
|
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
|
Medium |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
|
|
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
|
Low |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
|
Low |
|
Medium |
|
High |
Impact |
Likelihood Rating |
Consequence Rating | ||||
Insignificant (1) |
Minor (3) |
Moderate (10) |
Major (30) |
Catastrophic (100) | |
Almost Certain (3) |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
Likely (1) |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
Moderate (0.3) |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
Unlikely (0.1) |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
Rare (0.03) |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Likelihood Rating |
Consequence Rating | ||||
Insignificant (1) |
Minor (3) |
Moderate (10) |
Major (30) |
Catastrophic (100) | |
Almost Certain (3) |
|
|
|
|
|
Likely (1) |
|
|
Poor Data Redundancy |
|
Information Security |
Moderate (0.3) |
SaaS Provider Operational risk |
|
|
|
|
Unlikely (0.1) |
|
|
|
|
|
Rare (0.03) |
|
|
|
|
|
Identified risks and solutions
SaaS Provider Operational Risks: The SaaS applications are entirely dependent on the functional steps taken by the third party providers involved within the system architecture of the origination (Almorsy, Grundy & Müller, 2016). The services providences of the cloud services are entirely dependent on the third party providers, so if there are issues involved from the end of the cloud service priors then the users need to be dependent on that particular provider in managing their system architecture and functionalities that are provided by the cloud services (Kumar et al., 2014). Therefore, this is considered as one of the most effective risks involved within cloud service architecture that are incurred by the third party se4rvice providers
Solution: This can be resolved by effectively communicating with the service providers and then they can easily understand the risks involved within their service providences and these errors and functional discrepancies can be easily removed.
Poor Data Redundancy: Data redundancy means the process of holding data sets that are same in nature. There are different kinds of databases present within any data center that needs to be kept separated with respect to different segments and functional areas of operations (Kumbhare et al., 2015). In addition to this, the cloud based system architecture specifically SaaS architecture don’t provides effective amount of concern for storing data within significantly different places within the data centers (Demchenko et al. 2013). Therefore, this characteristics of cloud based system architecture provides impactful areas of risk identification (Almorsy, Grundy & Müller, 2016). Additionally, these aspects needs to be managed with respect to various functional areas of operations involved within the system architecture of the cloud based system architecture.
Solution: This issue can be resolved with respect to the establishing effective data centers that are capable of managing and separating the data bases and same kinds of data sets present within the organization. The organizations can easily manage their functionalities and advantages with respect to their effective and data redundant data centers.
Information Security: Information security risks are another effective and impactful risks involved within the organizational system architecture of SaaS implementing organization. This is cloud based system architecture that includes effective security issues into the infrastructure that reduces the operational functionalities involved within the system architecture of the organizational structure (Li et al., 2015). Therefore, this can also be considered as effective negative issues generated by the cloud infrastructure SaaS.
Solution: This issue can be solved with respect to the implementation of Integrative hybrid cloud solution services within their system architecture in order to retrieve their operational excellence from the security issues generated by the Software as a Service cloud based system architecture.
3.
Following are the security steps that are included within the system architecture:
Proper security risk identification: The risks involved with the system architecture can only be reduced with respect to the effective risk deification process (Liu et al., 2014). The network administrator and admin is responsible for managing these risks as they first identifies the risks ad these identification process might help the organization in preventing the risks.
Effective management of security: Security management is another important and crucial aspect to be considered within the system architectural development and cloud migration processes (Almorsy, Grundy & Müller, 2016). Data storages and other data centers need to be made sensitive to the security measures for being protected.
Efficient data redundancy: If multiple data centers are implemented ad build then the issues associated with the data redundancy aspect can be resolved with respect to the functional measures of the cloud migration aspect.
Physical access control: Physical access control is one of the most effective measures for securing the hybrid cloud with respect to different significant developmental aspects involved within the cloud based infrastructure. Physical access control measures are helpful to the administrator in reviewing the details of functional areas that manages effective system architecture within any system infrastructure for development.
User access control: The user access control is another aspect that needs to be managed for protecting the hybrid cloud set ups. In addition to this, there are a different user that manages their activities sometime illegally with respect to their functional aspects and important measures involved within their system architecture. Therefore, if these measures are incorporated unethically the hybrid cloud security measure will be hampered.
Audit scheduling: The hybrid cloud infrastructure may not hold the recent cyber attacks that are invoked by cyber criminals for managing their choices. In addition to this, the administrators need to be careful for managing these aspects within their system architecture.
4.
Following are the recommendations required for adopting the hybrid cloud based system architecture within SoftArc:
Application of resilience: Application of resilience is nothing but the process of execution after detecting errors within different distribution environments (Maurer, Brandic & Sakellariou, 2013). In addition to this, this aspect is not present on the web infrastructure that makes the cloud based services less compatible with other solutions that are manually operable within the organizational system architecture of any organization.
Disaster recovery: Disaster recovery is another aspect that can be effectively remove the issues of data losses that are included within any organizational structure. In addition to this, the hybrid cloud based architecture are easily compatible with providing support in retrieving the lost data within the organizational system architecture (Lukyanchikov et al., 2015). The web infrastructure is not capable of providing support to data losses involved within the data centers. Therefore, the cloud based solutions can be used for data retrieval solutions.
Backup: Back up the ultimate solution provided by the cloud based infrastructure involved within various IT infrastructure of organizations. In addition to this, previously the web infrastructure was not effectively capable of providing effective back up support to the organization but the cloud infrastructure is capable of providing back support.
5. Discussion on the requirement SoftArc need
The important requirement for SoftArc for context of IaaS and PaaS includes the following aspects to be considered:
Remote server administration: Proper understanding of the system as well as the analysis of the system approaches are important to conduct the remote sensor administration. In addition to this, this remote serve administration is helpful in making the system movement faster and also makes the maintenance easy with flexible budget measures (Maurer, Brandic & Sakellariou, 2013). Additionally, the tools required for this aspect are easily available for the development of the cloud services.
SLA management: There are several requirements that SoftArc needs to consider while conducting the service level agreements, these are responsibilities of SP, responsibilities of customers, information needs to be reported to customers, discounting strategies that attracts customers and another important aspect is the commitments that are made for managing loyalty with clients and customs with respect to value creation among them (Menzel et al., 2013). In contrast with these descriptions, this is identified that the all of these above mentioned aspects are very important for managing SLA within the organizational structure. IT investments and other important aspects are managed with respect to various infrastructural aspects involved within the SLA agreement.
Resource management: Resource management is another important fact about the IaaS and PaaS implementation within any organization. The resources required for implementing these services within organizations are the proper availability of data and other functional aspects such as flexibility, optimization of time, availability of resources etc (Maurer, Brandic& Sakellariou, 2013). All of these aspects needs to be managed and implemented within the organizational infrastructure in order to gain competitive advantages over the target market. For migrating the data server from the existing to the cloud base, SoftArc needs to implement one new server of need to upgrade the old server and through this new server all information will be transmitted to the cloud and all temporary data will be stored within this new server will transmitted to the cloud.
6. Move of SharePoint to AWS Cloud Services
Discussion on the migration plan required for migrating the existing serviceMicrosoft SharePoint and Microsoft SQL requires effective plan to be migrated to the AWS services within the system architecture of infrastructure of SoftArc Engineering firm. Therefore, the required plan or stages for this implementation process are being elaborated as follows with respect to the organizational objectives and goals of the organization. These are given as follows:
Efficient plan for migratory measures: Efficient plan is required for migrant the Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft SQL to the AWS services within the infrastructure of SoftArc. In addition to this, additional plan is required for migrating the application into the AWS services.
Creation of efficient architectural plan for migration: Efficient architectural plan is required for managing significant development of the migration measures involved within any cloud based system architecture (Pluzhnik & Nikulchev, 2014).
Study of the cu8stomization behavior for system integration: The understanding of the customization and integration approaches are important to be managed with respect to the functional requirements of the cloud based solution providers.
Creation of migration testing plan: Migration plan is required for manage significant growth in migratory events that are taken into consideration of any system architecture.
Migration of content: Migration content needs to be specified with respect to before preparing the plan for the migration of cloud services.
Microsoft Upgrade approach implementation: Up gradation of implementation approaches is very mandatory with respect to different functional measures that are required for managing migration within system architecture (Serrano et al., 2015).
Discussion on critical point highlighted at the time of migration of cloud servicesPlan for migration: The identified and selected task for migrating the tasks requires to analyze the complexities before migration.
Verification for migration: Verification of migration required for completing the migration process effectively.
Upgraded approach attachment to Microsoft: Up gradation of approaches related to migration is important to reduce issues involved within the migration process.
Migration of content: Contents needs to be checked before migration other discrepancies will be added to the contents.
Conclusion
This can be concluded that the implementation of the cloud based system architecture has proved very beneficial for SoftArc Engineering Ltd as this has provided the organization various benefits over their competitive targeted market with respect to their objectives and goals. The cloud based architecture have provide the organization availability and flexibility of services as well as data availability within their system architecture that mitigated their various functional issues and problems. In addition to this, the adoption of this cloud based system architecture have also included various issues and functional errors within their network. In order to resolve these issues different recommendations are also provided within this report in order to mitigate these issues involved within the system architecture with respect to the organizational goals and objectives.
References:
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., & Müller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.
Demchenko, Y., Makkes, M. X., Strijkers, R., Ngo, C., & Laat, C. D. (2013). Intercloud Architecture Framework for Heterogeneous Multi-Provider Cloud based Infrastructure Services Provisioning. International Journal of Next-Generation Computing, 4(2).
Demchenko, Y., Ngo, C., De Laat, C., Garcia-Espin, J. A., Figuerola, S., Rodriguez, J., ... & Ciulli, N. (2013, March). Intercloud architecture framework for heterogeneous cloud based infrastructure services provisioning on-demand. In Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA), 2013 27th International Conference on (pp. 777-784). IEEE.
Fischer, J., Tuecke, S., Foster, I., & Stewart, C. A. (2015, June). Jetstream: A Distributed Cloud Infrastructure for Underresourced higher education communities. In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on The Science of Cyberinfrastructure: Research, Experience, Applications and Models (pp. 53-61). ACM.
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