P15CS51 Cloud Services for Smith Security : Information Technology

Questions:

Smiths Security Ltd is a company that runs numerous Security businesses throughout Australia. Its head office is located within Sydney Metro. These businesses include Armoured Vehicles, Security Guards, Fire Monitoring Services, Alarm Monitoring and a number of related businesses.

It currently has a data centre in each of the major cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth). The major data centre is in its head office in Sydney. The company has the following server infrastructure at each site:

• 1 x Active Directory domain controller on Windows Server 2003
• 1 x SQL Server 2003 database server on Windows Server 2003
• 1 x Lotus Notes email Server
• 1 x Windows Server 2003 Print Server
• 1 x Windows Server 2003 running IIS Web Servers which connect to the SQL backend. 
• 2 x Business Application Servers running custom softwareto manage their staff

This infrastructure has obviously not been updated for some time and Smiths Security IT Management Team is very concerned that an upgrading OS and Server Hardware is not worth it. The IT team is now considering moving some, or all, of their current infrastructure into a Cloud and updating some of their software (but not their business application servers). 

Answers:

Introduction

This paper intends to discuss and provide recommendations to the concerns of Smith Security limited on cloud services. Smith security limited is an Australia based security business provider. The company is having a head office located in Sydney along with various data centre in major cities of Australia such as Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide ("Smith Security", 2018). The company is seeking help from Cloud Jump Consulting Company for moving their infrastructure over the cloud. The company is also concerned about updating their software but wants no change in their business application software. This paper would consider the possible methods and advice for the Smith Security Services. It can be concluded that this paper would provide an effective solution to the company when in doubt.

Discussion 

Cloud services are the key process of information technology for delivery of computing services. Cloud here refers to as ‘the internet' and the process of computing over the internet is cloud computing. The delivery includes spontaneous sharing of database management, networking, server sharing and software computing is embracing the companies by providing them required services on the go and charge them adequate amount on the basis of computing services used by them (Garg, Versteeg & Buyya, 2013). This section of paper would discuss the concerns of Smith security in the adoption of cloud services and provide relevant recommendation.

Report 1.

The concern of Smith Security Ltd on Moving Business Application Server to the Cloud

Business Application Server includes the complete service model of Smith security ltd. The company are using two business application software which is used to run the custom software of the organisation. The custom software is used by the company to manage their staffs. The company is not likely to move their business application software to the cloud. The reason is that the company is using the private business application for a long time and they are concerned about losing the control over the server, privacy, accessibility and security of the business application server (Juan-Verdejo & Baars, 2013, April).

It is recommendable for the Smith Security ltd to move their application server to the cloud as it would improve their business operation by including software as a service. It would help in reducing the expenses of installing software in all the site of their business in Australia. Since the company have offices in 5 major cities of Australia and each site uses two business application software. Therefore, adopting cloud services for business application server would provide cost reduction and flexibility of working from any location (Avram, 2014).

 The approaches that can be used for moving the business application server of the Smith security ltd to the cloud are both IaaS and PaaS since the servers are running custom software. The best available option to the security-based company can be transitioning the business application to the Azure. The service hosting option of azure are both the PaaS and IaaS platform, and the choice between the two platform remains in the hands of this organisation. Therefore it is important to provide major benefits and issues of the two platforms in the context of relocating business application server (Yangui et al., 2014). The IaaS is suitable for moving the whole infrastructure of the existing application, but the PaaS would need the changes to the software and application of the company. The benefit of PaaS is that it is cost effective when compared to IaaS.

Since the company is not only concerned about shifting their infrastructure but also updating some of their software, the PaaS platform would be reliable. Thus it is recommendable for the Smith security to consider moving their business application software to the cloud and use PaaS as a platform.

Report 2.

Best Solution for moving SQL and IIS Server of the Smith Security ltd over the Cloud

The Smith security ltd uses 1 window server 2003 which uses the applications SQL and IIS for moving web environment over the cloud. The best solution for the SQL application would be PaaS (Platform as a Service). The best solution for cloud service for IIS (Internet Information Service) application is IaaS. In IaaS point of access to software running on servers is provided to the web browser (Walraven, Truyen, & Joosen, 2014). The PaaS based SQL database is safer and secure, and thus it is recommended to the Smith Security Ltd. If other servers also access the SQL server then

Difference, Benefits and Issues between IaaS and PaaS Platforms

The IaaS platform provides equipment for networking, operations, hardware and data storage over the internet but the PaaS platform provides the hardware architecture and framework required to bring an application in to the service (Moreno-Vozmediano, Montero & Llorente, 2013). The provider of IaaS have the responsibility of smooth running of devices and software and their maintenance but the service provider of PaaS platform does not own, and they do not have the responsibility to maintain the resources. The IaaS clients are likely to have direct access to their storage and server (Repschlaeger et al., 2013). The IaaS platform is the most flexible model when compared to PaaS, and it would allow automatic functioning of Smith security ltd, but the PaaS platform is based on virtualisation (Zabolotnyi et al., 2015). The examples of PaaS provider are Google Engine, and OpenShift and examples of IaaS platform are NaviSite and Exascale. The Smith security ltd can consider this differences between the IaaS and PaaS platform while moving their web environment server to the cloud.

Report 3. 

Migration of Lotus Notes email Server and Other Business Application

The Smith security was using 1 lotus note email server and different business application. The company does not want to use the Lotus Notes and specific business application such as word processor and spreadsheet. Therefore the company is concerned about migrating the lotus notes over the cloud.

Difference between the IaaS, SaaS and PaaS Model

In order to recommend the most suitable model for cloud migration, the Cloud Jump Consulting private limited would consider the major differences between IaaS, PaaS and SaaS model. The lowermost level of cloud migration model is infrastructure as a service (IaaS). In this level, pre-configured hardware is delivered through a hypervisor or virtualized interface. The IaaS does not provide a high level infrastructure software such as an operating system (Bruneo, 2014). Platform as a service (PaaS) is developed a further step and contains the operating environment, application services and operating systems. PaaS is for the organization which considers a specific development environment and specific application (Walraven, Truyen & Joosen, 2014). Saas is the platform that provides full applications for the functioning of the business along with on-demand specific services such as web conference and email services.

Appropriate Model for Mail, Spreadsheet and Word Processing

The two models which are most appropriate for mail, spreadsheet and word processing are SaaS and PaaS. Software as a service is a delivery model which is licensed and provided on the basis of subscription. The SaaS is appropriate for mail, spreadsheet and word processing as it is hosted centrally from the main centre. The Software as a Service model is used for migration of the business application such as spreadsheet, word processor and email services of an organization. The SaaS platform based cloud system is cost effective and can provide mail support to about 15,000 users of the organization (Ojala, 2013). This cloud service does not include any intermediate partner for service distribution, and it is distributed directly to the company. The setup expenses and initialization cost of relocating mail, spreadsheet and word processor are less. The Smith security ltd have 5 offices in Australia and lotus notes server of each centre requires migration. Therefore the company can adopt this model as it is cost-efficient and can cover the requirements of each office. Alternatively, PaaS platform can be used by the company as a tool for developing websites and application for email and spreadsheet. It can just provide the environment for the development of the application and does not provide the proper solution of migration of lotus notes (Pahl, 2015).

Recommendation among the two models for Lotus Notes Migration

 It is recommended to the Smith security ltd to use the SaaS model for migration of Lotus Notes application. The SaaS model is appropriate and installation is cost-effective. It is advisable for the company that there are specific problems that can be encountered by the company while using SaaS platform. There is a need for dedicated and constant internet connection. The company would find the risk of data control and security of data. The SaaS service provider would decide the version of the software that Smith security ltd would be using. It is advised to the Smith security ltd to adopt SaaS service which can integrate the cloud services with legacy system and on-premises network.

Conclusion

 It can be concluded from this report that the Smith Security Ltd can adopt the migration of their infrastructure to the cloud services. The paper is efficient in considering the concerns of the company about not moving their business application server to the cloud and provides the solution to the concerns. The paper provides the recommendation to the company on choosing among the various cloud service models available. The paper recommends the Smith security ltd to use PaaS platform for migrating their business infrastructure. The paper recommends the PaaS as the best solution for relocating SQL application server and IaaS for IIS application. It can be concluded that the company can use the PaaS model for Lotus Notes migration. Therefore, it can be concluded that the paper is efficient in providing the advice to the Smith Security Ltd.

References

Avram, M. G. (2014). Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an enterprise perspective. Procedia Technology, 12, 529-534.

Bruneo, D. (2014). A stochastic model to investigate data center performance and QoS in IaaS cloud computing systems. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 25(3), 560-569.

Garg, S. K., Versteeg, S., & Buyya, R. (2013). A framework for ranking of cloud computing services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(4), 1012-1023.

Juan-Verdejo, A., & Baars, H. (2013, April). Decision support for partially moving applications to the cloud: the example of business intelligence. In Proceedings of the 2013 international workshop on Hot topics in cloud services (pp. 35-42). ACM.

Moreno-Vozmediano, R., Montero, R. S., & Llorente, I. M. (2013). Key challenges in cloud computing: Enabling the future internet of services. IEEE Internet Computing, 17(4), 18-25.

Ojala, A. (2013). Software-as-a-Service Revenue models. IT Professional, 15(3), 54-59.

Pahl, C. (2015). Containerization and the paas cloud. IEEE Cloud Computing, 2(3), 24-31.

Repschlaeger, J., Wind, S., Zarnekow, R., & Turowski, K. (2013). Decision model for selecting a cloud provider: A study of service model decision priorities.

Smith Security. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.smithsecurity.com.au/

Walraven, S., Truyen, E., & Joosen, W. (2014). Comparing PaaS offerings in light of SaaS development. Computing, 96(8), 669-724.

Yangui, S., Marshall, I. J., Laisne, J. P., & Tata, S. (2014). CompatibleOne: The open source cloud broker. Journal of Grid Computing, 12(1), 93-109.

Zabolotnyi, R., Leitner, P., Hummer, W., & Dustdar, S. (2015). JCloudScale: closing the gap between IaaS and PaaS. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (TOIT), 15(3), 10.