Sit113 Cloud Computing And Virtualisation Assessment Answers

Answer:

Introduction:

Cloud computing is a computing software and infrastructure model that is utilized for allowing universal access to the shared pools of arrange able resources for example storage, servers, computer networks, services and applications that can be highly allocated with minimum administrative effort, frequently over the Internet (Moreno-Vozmediano, Montero & Llorente, 2012).

Cloud computing enables enterprises and users, with several capabilities of computing to process and store data in either a third party server or a privately owned cloud, which is situated in a data center in order to make the data ingression mechanisms more reliable and efficient.  Cloud computing depends on division of allocated resources to attain economy of scale and coherence, that is closer to a utilization.

Webb’s Stores should opt for cloud computing approaches as cloud computing can help them to keep their information safe as well as secured (Zissis & Lekkas, 2012). The key concepts of cloud computing are as follows:

1. Manageability: The main advantage of cloud computing is the manageability. The monitoring, operation, deployment are easily manageable.
2. Flexibility: Cloud computing has the capability to have the control over the software, platform and the hardware of the system.
3. Cost Effective: Cloud computing is cheaper than any other software tool and thus is cost effective for Webb’s Stores.
4. Performance: Cloud computing increases the performance of the company that has implemented it by reducing the complexity of the applications.
5. Security: Another important key aspect of cloud computing is security. The data and the information are extremely protected and secure in cloud models.

These are the major and important features of cloud computing that make cloud computing easily acceptable by all organizations.

Webb’s Stores want to implement Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure for their movement of databases into cloud computing models, which means they have select either IaaS or PaaS (Jadeja & Modi, 2012).

Amazon Web Services or AWS offers cost effective, scalable and reliable cloud computing services or rather cost effective, reliable and virtual infrastructure. Webb’s Stores can opt for Amazon Web Services, if they want their information to be safe and secure. This can be implemented in cost effective way.

Microsoft Azure is a flexible, reliable and open cloud computing platform. Webb’s Stores can opt for Microsoft Azure if they want their platform to be agile.

However, security of information is the first priority for all organizations. Therefore, Amazon Web Services or AWS is the best option for Webb’s Stores.

Webb’s Stores can use two cloud computing architectures for moving their databases into cloud. The two examples of such architectures are Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Webb’s Stores can implement two architectures to move their databases. They are as follows:

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): IaaS is a category of cloud computing, which gives virtualized services of computing to organizations (Manvi & Shyam, 2014). In an IaaS model, the third party giver presents the storage, server, software, hardware and other elements of infrastructure but in a virtualized form. IaaS provides the underlying networking, servers, operating systems, and security for developing such services, applications and for utilizing development databases and tools. It includes the hard disk storage and cloud servers that can be utilized by Webb’s Stores to receive better service. The main advantages of Infrastructure-as-a-Service are as follows:

1. Scalibity and Flexibility: IaaS is flexible and scalable, which means it easily acceptable by all organizations.
2. Cost Effective: IaaS is cheaper than any other cloud models and is even cheaper to implement.
3. Faster: IaaS does not take much time for implementation and even after implementation, the work is done very soon and without complexity.
4. High availability: This is easily available in the market so  implementation of this cloud model is very easy.

The disadvantages of Infrastructure-as-a-Service are as follows:

1. Dependence on Provider: IaaS is highly dependent on provider and it makes it less famous.
2. Complex Resource Allocation: Resource allocation is complex and complicated in IaaS.
3. More risky: IaaS is more risky and sometimes security is a problem.
4. Virtual on demand Infrastructure: the infrastructure in IaaS is virtualized and is virtual on demand.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): PaaS is another category of cloud computing just like IaaS and SaaS. It provides an online platform to the clients so that they can manage, develop and run applications without the difficulty of forming and retaining the complex infrastructure (Giessmann & Stanoevska-Slabeva, 2012). PaaS hibernates the underlying infrastructure of the applications that are built to run on the Internet and cloud, organisations those who want agile, efficient applications must consider PaaS.

The advantages of PaaS are as follows:

1. Less Risky: PaaS is less risky after implementation.
2. Cost Effective: PaaS is cost effective.
3. Data Security: Security is very high in PaaS.
4. Easy Implementation: PaaS can be easily implemented.

The disadvantages of PaaS are as follows:

1. Less Availability: PaaS is not easily available in the market and this makes it harder to get.
2. Complex Integration: The integration of PaaS with other systems is much complex and complicated.
3. Easily Breached: Though it is secured, but still it can be easily breached by hackers and intruders.
4. Absence of System: System is absent in PaaS, which makes it more complex to integrate with other applications.

From the above mentioned advantages and disadvantages, it is evident that Webb’s Stores should choose Infrastructure-as-a-Service or Amazon Web Services as it provides secured, reliable, virtual infrastructure and the security of any orgnaziation is their first priority over anything else.

PowerPoint briefing of SaaS for Webb’s Directors

The Board of Webb’s is considering shifting to a Software as a Service model for giving different office automation services such as presentation software like PowerPoint, spreadsheets, word processing and email. There are a number of providers of Software as a Services that are now available and it is recommended to choose one of these services for Webb’s.

Software as a service is a delivery model and software licensing in which software is centrally hosted and licensed on the basis of subscription . It is often referred to as software that is on demand, and was previously referred to as services plus software by Microsoft.  SaaS is usually accessed by users, who are using a thin client via a web browser (Wu, Garg & Buyya, 2012). Software as a Service has become a simple and common delivery model that are used for several business applications. These applications include DBMS software, office and messaging software, gaming,  payroll processing software, management software, CAD software, development software,  virtualization,  accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, content management (CM), and service desk management.  SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.

Software as a Service has various advantages. They are as follows:

1. High Adoption: Software as a Service is highly adopted by most of the organization for its simple and commonly accessed implementation.
2. Cost effective : software as a Service is very cheaper than other models and thus is cost effective for any organization.
3. Easy Up gradation: Up gradation is needed for any model and Software as a Service can be easily up graded.
4. Easy Integration: Integration is important for all cloud models and Software as a Service can be easily integrated with all other systems.
5. Easy implementation: Software as a Service can be easily implemented and it does not take much time.

Webb’s Stores will be in huge profit if they will opt for Software as a Service and they will not face any loss in their business.

Software as a Service has various and several disadvantages that make it less popular for some organizations (Gupta & Varshapriya, 2014). The disadvantages are as follows:

1. Security issues: Security in Software as a Service is highly threatened. Information is often lost in software as a service.
2. Data Concerns: Data is often lost in Software as a Service and this makes it complex for the organization that whether they should opt for it or not.
3. Lack of Control: control is lost in software as a Service
4. Connectivity Required: Connectivity is needed in SaaS and this makes it more complex.
5. Poor Performance: Due to the complexity in connectivity, Performance is often poor.

If Webb’s Stores is planning to implement SaaS, then they must keep in mind the above mentioned disadvantages.

Webb’s Store should opt for Google Apps for their Software as a Service. It is better than any other software services as it is easy to implement and cost effective.

The disadvantages of Google Apps are as follows:

1. If the servers crash, the applications would not run properly.
2. Everything is controlled by Google.
3. Non flexible.

Webb’s Stores has data centers in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, which run MS SQL Server 2012 R2 databases. The three data centers are linked by WAN and data is duplicated between the data centers daily. They have a copy of the database in Auckland, however, they are having problems in copying data to Auckland for the reason of latency. Therefore, they are considering to shift their databases to cloud computing approaches (Chen & Zhao, 2012).

The report outlines the better approaches between the IaaS and PaaS for this particular case study of Webb’s Stores (Moreno-Vozmediano, Montero & Llorente, 2012). The report also covers the advantages and the disadvantages of cloud architecture using a table. The recommendation for selecting a particular approach for this case study is also given here. The description of the discussion is given in the following paragraphs.

IaaS is a category of cloud computing, which gives virtualized services of computing to organizations. In an IaaS model, the third party giver presents the storage, server, software, hardware and other elements of infrastructure but in a virtualized form (Moreno-Vozmediano, Montero & Llorente, 2012).

PaaS is another category of cloud computing just like IaaS and SaaS. It provides an online platform to the clients so that they can manage, develop and run applications without the difficulty of forming and retaining the complex infrastructure (Giessmann & Stanoevska-Slabeva, 2012).

Advantages and Disadvantages of IaaS and PaaS

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a computing software and infrastructure model that is utilized for allowing universal access to the shared pools of arrange able resources for example storage, servers, computer networks, services and applications that can be highly allocated with minimum administrative effort, frequently over the Internet (Zissis & Lekkas, 2012). Cloud computing enables enterprises and users, with several capabilities of computing to process and store data in either a third party server or a privately owned cloud, which is situated in a data center in order to make the data ingression mechanisms more reliable and efficient.  Cloud computing depends on division of allocated resources to attain economy of scale and coherence, that is closer to a utilization. Cloud computing has three major categories or approaches (Jadeja & Modi, 2012). They are as follows:

a)Infrastructure-as-a-Service or IaaS

1. b) Platform-as-a-Service or PaaS
2. c) Software-as-a-Service or SaaS

IaaS Approach to migrate Webb’s database

IaaS is a category of cloud computing, which gives virtualized services of computing to organizations. In an IaaS model, the third party giver presents the storage, server, software, hardware and other elements of infrastructure but in a virtualized form (Manvi & Shyam, 2014). IaaS provides the underlying networking, servers, operating systems, and  security for developing such services, applications and for utilizing development databases and tools. It includes the hard disk storage and cloud servers that can be utilized by Webb’s Stores to receive better service.

PaaS hibernates the underlying infrastructure of the applications that are built to run on the Internet and cloud, organisations those who want agile, efficient applications must consider PaaS (Giessmann & Stanoevska-Slabeva, 2012). If Webb’s Store wants agile, efficient applications for better customers experience they must opt PaaS.

Recommendations

Webb’s Stores should opt for IaaS for solving their issues and problems. It will help them to keep the information safe and secure. They should focus on the security of company at first and then they should focus on their software applications. When the security of the company is breached, Webb’s Stores will suffer huge losses and even will not be able to retrieve information. Therefore, it would be better if they opt for IaaS.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, Webb’s Stores should opt for IaaS for their moving of databases into cloud computing. IaaS will provide them virtual infrastructure and will help them to keep their information safe and secure. Moreover, IaaS would be cost effective and they would not have to invest a huge amount for the implementation.

References

Chen, D., & Zhao, H. (2012, March). Data security and privacy protection issues in cloud computing. In Computer Science and Electronics Engineering (ICCSEE), 2012 International Conference on (Vol. 1, pp. 647-651). IEEE.

Giessmann, A., & Stanoevska-Slabeva, K. (2012). Business models of platform as a service (PaaS) providers: current state and future directions. JITTA: Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, 13(4), 31.

Gupta, N., & Varshapriya, J. N. (2014). Software as a Service. International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE)-2014.

Jadeja, Y., & Modi, K. (2012, March). Cloud computing-concepts, architecture and challenges. In Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies (ICCEET), 2012 International Conference on (pp. 877-880). IEEE.

Manvi, S. S., & Shyam, G. K. (2014). Resource management for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in cloud computing: A survey. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 41, 424-440.

Moreno-Vozmediano, R., Montero, R. S., & Llorente, I. M. (2012). Iaas cloud architecture: From virtualized datacenters to federated cloud infrastructures. Computer, 45(12), 65-72.

Wu, L., Garg, S. K., & Buyya, R. (2012). SLA-based admission control for a Software-as-a-Service provider in Cloud computing environments. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 78(5), 1280-1299.

Zissis, D., & Lekkas, D. (2012). Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation computer systems, 28(3), 583-592.