Data Warehousing And Data Mining Over Cloud

Discuss about the Data Warehousing and Data Mining over Cloud.

 

 

Introduction

Kentico is an organization that is based out of Australia and deals in the domains of e-commerce along with online marketing. It provides web solutions and services to its customers which involves huge clusters of information. In order to deal with the information sets and streamline the activities, it has been decided by the senior management to move the database of the organization to cloud/NoSQL. It will provide enhanced storage options and will also carry out the operations on the data easily. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the project has been explained and discussed in the report.

Description of current/new ICT service: In order to deal with the information sets and streamline the activities, it has been decided by the senior management to move the database of the organization to cloud/NoSQL. It will provide enhanced storage options and will also carry out the operations on the data easily.

The volumes of information that Kentico deals with is dynamic in nature which may show sudden rise and drops in a specified period of time. It is essential that the design of the database is done in such a manner that the database is flexible and scalable in nature. The recommended cloud and NoSQL databases will fulfill the need and the feature of scalability will be present in the same.

There are several users of the information that is associated with Kentico. These users may be internal to the organization and may also be external to the organization. The user privileges would therefore be required to be defined to control the access associated with each of the user type. Cloud and NoSQL databases will provide the opportunity as administration on the data will be convenient.

The data in the database will be easily monitored and there would be automated backing up of the data that would be allowed with the use of cloud and NoSQL database. There will also be enhanced disaster recovery mechanisms installed with the use of the database.

The management and financial team of the organization is efficient to carry out a detailed cost benefit analysis on the changes and will conclude that there will be a lot of cost savings with the implementation of the system.

Due to the presence of traditional databases, there are a number of operational issues and errors that come which bring down the morale of the employees. With the involvement of cloud databases, these errors will be avoided which will not only enhance the levels of employee satisfaction but will also increase the level of productivity and efficiency. It is not always easy to accept the changes and adapt easily to them. There will be many changes that will be introduced with the implementation of cloud or NoSQL databases which will bring a lot many changes in terms of strategy, methodology along with operations. The employees may show resistance to adapt to the new system in the initial stages.

There will be an extra share of costs that would be required to be spent towards training of the employees. Without providing the employees with the required amount of training, there will be confusion in their minds. It would therefore be necessary to spend on trainings.

There may be chances wherein the specific skill sets required for the cloud databases and related operations may not be present in the organization. It will demand external hiring which will turn out to be an expensive procedure.

The change in the database may be attacked with a lot many security risks and concerns which may become difficult to deal with (Hashizume, Rosado, Fernández-Medina, & Fernandez, 2013).

Migration from the traditional systems to the new system will not take place in a few minutes. It will require a considerable amount of time which may be considered as a downtime for the system as there will be a lot of maintenance activities that will also be carried out. System availability may get impacted negatively due to these reasons. 

The processing speed associated with the data and data operations will improve and there will also be better streamlining of the information that will be observed.

In spite of spending on the trainings of the employees, there will be a lot of cost saving that will be achieved with the medium of adaptation to the advanced databases.

Cloud databases and NoSQL databases have a huge demand in the market. It would therefore be beneficial for the employees to acquire the skills associated with the same to enhance their worth in the market.

The ability to carry out data related operations will become easy and convenient in case of Kentico which will provide the organization with a competitive edge above the rest of the organizations in the market.

Time and effort that is currently involved in certain unnecessary activities will be available to be applied to rest of the important functions and activities to enhance the quality and availability of the system for better user experience

Cloud databases along with NoSQL databases will bring in a lot many access points. These access points may be used by the attackers to gain unauthorized entry to the databases which may result in the security threat of information breaching (Amato, 2016).

Many of the malware have been developed to attack the cloud databases which may be launched and triggered to cause damage to the information present in the database of Kentico (Jansen, 2016).

The information will be exchanged frequently over the network which may bring in another threat in the form of information loss or information leakage.

Networks will be actively involved with the inclusion of cloud databases which will lead to the emergence of the network security risks and attacks such as man in the middle attack, spoofing attacks, integrity attacks and many more (Pearson & Benameur, 2016).

Database availability will be desired by the end users and it will be mandatory for the execution of certain functions and operations. However, there may be attacks on the availability of the database which may bring down the levels of satisfaction of the end users (Kshetri, 2016)

There are a lot many resources that are engaged with Kentico and these resources will be provided with the access to the database along with varied privilege on the same to perform data related operations. Some of the employees may take advantage of the privileges granted to them and may pass on the critical information to the malicious entities for their personal benefits. These attacks will come under the category of insider threats and will cause a lot of damage to the organization (Aws, 2016).

Access and identity management are some of measures that are adapted to enhance the basic security of the system and any loopholes present in these measures will cause a lot of damage to the organization (Jing, 2014).  

It would be required to immediately create a training plan for the resources engaged with Kentico to allow the employees, management along with the heads of the departments to be clear on the features and functions of the new database that will be implemented. Security framework associated with the database and information sets will also be required to be modified with immediate actions taken on the security plan modification along with implementation of changes in the security strategy.

It will be extremely necessary to ensure that the training plan and the security strategy that is created in the initial phase is implemented successfully and there are measures taken to bring improvements to the same by collecting the feedback from the users at regular intervals.

Maintenance will be an ongoing process in the case of cloud databases along with that of the NoSQL databases. A detailed assessment of the level of improvements that will be necessary in terms of maintenance and support will be required to be done. The overall security infrastructure along with the security framework will also be required to be re-designed so that the latest measures can be adopted to enhance the basic as well as the advanced security of the database (Ryan, 2016). It would also be necessary to make sure that verification and validation activities are carried out in a frequent manner.

Cloud Database and Associated Database Operations

Expansion of cloud and NoSQL databases in the market has been rapid and there are a lot many organizations that are moving to these databases from the traditional ones. Cloud databases are the ones that make use of cloud computing for data storage along with the data management. NoSQL databases are the ones that do not involve the use of SQL queries and statements (Takabi, 2016).

Due to the presence of traditional databases, there are a number of operational issues and errors that come which bring down the morale of the employees. With the involvement of cloud databases, these errors will be avoided which will not only enhance the levels of employee satisfaction but will also increase the level of productivity and efficiency. The volumes of information that an organization deals with is dynamic in nature which may show sudden rise and drops in a specified period of time. It is essential that the design of the database is done in such a manner that the database is flexible and scalable in nature. The recommended cloud and NoSQL databases will fulfill the need and the feature of scalability will be present in the same.

Cloud databases and NoSQL databases have a huge demand in the market. It would therefore be beneficial for the employees to acquire the skills associated with the same to enhance their worth in the market. The ability to carry out data related operations will become easy and convenient in case of organizational implementation which will provide the organization with a competitive edge above the rest of the organizations in the market. Time and effort that is currently involved in certain unnecessary activities will be available to be applied to rest of the important functions and activities to enhance the quality and availability of the system for better user experience

Data Warehousing and Data Mining over Cloud

Business intelligence is an umbrella that comprises of numerous technologies and concepts within it. Two of the essential technologies that come under Business Intelligence are data mining and data warehousing. These technologies allow the user to carry out a detailed analysis of the data that is associated with the organization and to also manage the data easily and efficiently.

Cloud databases also support the use and implementation of logical data warehouses which are also termed as Logical DW. There are several properties, attributes and parameters that are associated with the data sets stored in the database. Logical DW will provide a logical view of the entire information sets which will allow the administrators and data managers to carry out the tasks of monitoring and maintenance easily.

Also, the analysis on the data will be easily carried out through the medium of these tools which will reveal a lot many trends and patterns associated with the data.

There are several risks and attacks that are associated with the cloud and NoSQL databases in terms of the security of the data and information (Sen, 2016).

Cloud databases along with NoSQL databases will bring in a lot many access points. These access points may be used by the attackers to gain unauthorized entry to the databases which may result in the security threat of information breaching. Many of the malware have been developed to attack the cloud databases which may be launched and triggered to cause damage to the information present in the database of an organization. The information will be exchanged frequently over the network which may bring in another threat in the form of information loss or information leakage. Networks will be actively involved with the inclusion of cloud databases which will lead to the emergence of the network security risks and attacks such as man in the middle attack, spoofing attacks, integrity attacks and many more (Bhabad, 2015).

Database availability will be desired by the end users and it will be mandatory for the execution of certain functions and operations. However, there may be attacks on the availability of the database which may bring down the levels of satisfaction of the end users (Mahmoud, 2015). There are a lot many resources that are engaged with an organization and these resources will be provided with the access to the database along with varied privilege on the same to perform data related operations. Some of the employees may take advantage of the privileges granted to them and may pass on the critical information to the malicious entities for their personal benefits. These attacks will come under the category of insider threats and will cause a lot of damage to the organization. Access and identity management are some of measures that are adapted to enhance the basic security of the system and any loopholes present in these measures will cause a lot of damage to the organization (Sun, Zhang, Xiong, & Zhu, 2014).

Countermeasures to Data Security

The security risks and threats that have been defined above can be controlled, prevented and detected with the application of a lot many security countermeasures (Lu, 2014).

The primary step to security would be in the form of enhancement of the basic security of the database which will include the use of automated tools and equipment such as that of anti-malware packages along with anti-denial tools. It will also be necessary to install proxy servers and firewalls to control the access.

The next step would include the enhancement of advanced security. The security strategy that shall be designed in this regard shall include the countermeasures in three categories as administrative, logical and physical controls. There shall be use of automated tools for evaluation and auditing purposes to make sure that any of the deviations are immediately tracked (Panetta, 2016).

There shall also be application of logical and technical controls that shall be done on the database. These controls will include use of intrusion detection and prevention systems, implementation of encryption of information, authorized monitoring of the network and so on (Wood, 2016).

Physical security is something that is usually not paid much attention; however, the case shall not be the same over here and physical security shall be enhanced across all the entry and exit points (Microsoft, 2016).

Conclusion

Data and information are the assets for any organization and it is extremely necessary to make sure that there is no damage caused to these assets and the operations that are executed around them are done in a smooth manner. The use of traditional databases in the organizations is creating a lot many problems in terms of handling, management and execution. It is therefore necessary to migrate to the cloud databases and NoSQL databases for efficient data management along with enhanced storage of the data. These databases will bring in a lot many benefits to the users in terms of processing speed, security framework, storage options, data backup and recovery measures and many more. Also, these are now being synced with the Business Intelligence and Big Data tools to enhance the quality and performance of the same.

References

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Aws. (2016). Overview of Security Processes. Retrieved 3 May 2017, from https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-security-whitepaper.pdf

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