PowerPoint Essay On Cloud Architectures For Regional Gardens Ltd.

Definition of Cloud Computing

Regional Gardens Ltd is a company that runs a number of related gardening enterprises. It has a large display garden that it opens for public inspection a number of times a year. These enterprises include the Regional Gardens Nursery which sells plants and garden supplies to the public, and Regional Garden Planners which provides garden advice, design and consultancy services.

Regional Gardens Ltd has a small data centre at its main site in Bathurst where the companys servers and data storage is located. The company has the following server infrastructure:

2 x Active Directory domain controllers on Windows Server 2008 R2, (2 x Xeon 3.6GHZ, 8GB RAM, 140GB HDD);
3 x SQL Server 2003 database servers on Windows Server 2003 (2 x Xeon 2.8GHZ, 4GB RAM, 250GB RAID-5 array); 1
1 x Exchange 2007 email server on Windows Server 2008 R2 (2 x Xeon 3.6GHZ, 8GB RAM, 250GB RAID-1 array);
4 x Windows Server 2003 File and Print servers (2 x Xeon 2.8GHZ, 4GB RAM, 250GB RAID-1 array);
2 x Red Hat Enterprise 5 Linux servers running Apache and TomCat (2 x Xeon 2.8GHZ, 16GB RAM, 140GB HDD).

This infrastructure has not been updated for some time and the Regional Gardens Board is concerned that a full upgrade may now cost them more than it is worth. The Board is now considering moving some, or all, of their current infrastructure into the Cloud. The Board sees this as a strategic move to future-proof the company.

Regional Gardens has engaged you as a consultant to advise them on the use of Cloud Computing in their daily operations. They have some 70 garden design, horticultural and support staff that work on different projects for clients in New South Wales. They have been advised that a move to using a Cloud based infrastructure would be an advantage to them.

Prepare a PowerPoint briefing for the Regional Gardens board. Your briefing should:

.Explain the main concepts of Cloud Computing and why you think that a move to the Cloud could be good for Regional Gardens;
.Explain some of the Cloud Architectures that you think would be useful for Regional Gardens to use as part of their Cloud infrastructure. This explanation should also briefly discuss how the current Regional Gardens infrastructure could be replicated or replaced in a Cloud deployment.

Each slide in the briefing must also include speaking notes in the notes section to explain the slide, and all images used in the briefing should be referenced.

Regional Gardens want you to report on:

What are the major differences between the models IaaS, PaaS and SaaS?

Recommend the model that you consider most appropriate for this service and discuss why this model is the most appropriate for the SharePoint service.

What are the most likely problems that Regional Gardens will encounter with the model that you recommend? How would you advise Regional Gardens to deal with these issues?

Slide 1: Title Slide

Slide 2: Introduction

Slide 3: Definition of Cloud Computing

Slide Note:  Cloud computing is the safest mode of transferring data online. It is utilized for various remote servers networking. Any type of data related operation could be easily done with this mode. It is involved in the deployment of various software network and delivering Internet services (Pahl, 2015).

Slide 4: Concepts of Cloud Computing

Slide Note:  Three major concepts of cloud computing are present. They are as follows:

1. i) Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS: Provides virtualized infrastructure.
2. ii) Platform as a service or PaaS: Provides online platform (Kavis, 2014).

iii) Software as a Service: Provides software on demand.

Slide 5: Advantages of cloud Computing

Slide Note: Various advantages or benefits of cloud computing are present. They are as follows:

1. i) Flexibility: It is extremely flexible.
2. ii) Security: Cloud computing is extremely safe and secured (Hashizume et al., 2013).

iii) Easy Access: Information or data could be easily accessed.

1. iv) Disaster Recovery: In built DR planning within it.
2. v) Software Updates: Automatic software updates are possible.

Slide 6: Cloud Architectures for Regional Gardens Ltd.

Slide Note: There are three options for the cloud architecture of Regional Gardens Ltd. they are:

1. i) IaaS
2. ii) PaaS

iii) SaaS

Slide 7: Recommendation about Cloud Architecture

Slide Note: The infrastructure for the Regional Gardens Ltd. should be selected with utmost sincerity. All the three cloud service models have their own benefits. They are given below:

1. i) IaaS: Extremely secured and effective as well as efficient (Kavis, 2014).
2. ii) PaaS: Extremely cost effective and flexible.

iii) SaaS: Absolutely cheap and scalable.

Slide 9: Process to Move to Cloud

Slide Note: There are six steps in moving to a cloud from the existing infrastructure. They are as follows:

1. i) Management Alterations: The Company should be able to manage all the changes.
2. ii) Understanding Cloud: The entire concept of cloud computing should be understood.

iii) Checking Software Licenses: The software licenses should be checked (Pahl, 2015).

1. iv) Checking problems in Data security: There could be various issues in data security or protection. Thus they should be checked.
2. v) Checking migration cost: The cost of migration could be high and thus it should be properly checked.
3. vi) Keeping track of Connectivity costs: This type of cost can hamper the budget of the company and there should a steady checking and keeping track of these costs.

Slide 10: Conclusion

Office automation system can be defined as the information system that is completely computer based and which helps in the collection, processing, storing and transmitting any information (Fernando, Loke & Rahayu, 2013). It is the variety of software or computer machinery that is utilized for accomplishing any task. This particular system even helps to optimize or to automate the existing office processes. There are various approaches for this particular office automation system in Regional Gardens.

Out of the various types of approaches for office automation, one of the most important is the ad hoc approach. It is the specific non structured approach that helps in the various types of office automation system (Kavis, 2014). There are several important advantages of this approach as well. The first and the most important advantage of the ad hoc approach is that it is extremely fast and secured. Due to the high speed, it is often undertaken by various organizations. Moreover, this approach is cost effective and thus could b e easily afforded by all organizations. When this particular approach amalgamates with a cloud irrespective of the fact that whether it is public or private, it is evident to give awesome results and thus could be easily utilized by Regional Gardens Ltd (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2016). Due to the utmost safety and security, this approach never loses any confidential data or information.

Concepts of Cloud Computing

In spite of having all these above mentioned advantages or benefits, Ad hoc approach does possess some of the major and the most significant disadvantages. These disadvantages often become a major problem for the organizations who are executing their office automation with the help of ad hoc approach (Dinh et al., 2013). The most significant drawback of the ad hoc approach is that the approach is never executed by following procedures. There remains a high chance of uncertainty within this approach.

The second suitable and applicable approach for the office automation system of the Regional Gardens Ltd. is the structured approach (Pahl, 2015). The most important advantage of the structured approach is that is completes its work by means of following various processes. Due to this following of various processes, structured approach is utilized by several organizations.

Although, a disadvantage is also present within the structured approach. The main drawback of this structured approach is that it is extremely time consuming or very slow (Hashizume et al., 2013). Since, this approach follows a sequence of processes or procedures, to complete its work. Thus, this approach is not always used by all organizations.

For the successful office automation system of the company of Regional Gardens Ltd., the perfect approach is the ad hoc approach. Although, this approach is considered as the non structural approach, still it would be the most suitable and the best approach for the company of Regional Gardens Ltd. Due to the utmost safety and security, this particular approach would be solving all the problems or issues related to the office automation system of the organization. Moreover, this particular approach would definitely bring out the best of the advantages and benefits of the organization.

Migration to the cloud system is the procedure to move all the data, business elements and applications from any particular organization’s obsolete web infrastructure to cloud (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2016). Regional Gardens has decided to move all their data or application to any specific cloud. It can either be IaaS or PaaS.  

1. i) Definition:  IaaS or infrastructure as a service can be defined as any specific online infrastructure that is utilized for the purpose of providing virtualized infrastructure to its clients. These are online services which help to provide application platform interfaces to the computing resource (Dinh et al., 2013). The best example of IaaS or infrastructure as a service is the Amazon Web Services or AWS.

PaaS or platform as a service can be defined as the online platform that is provided to the users for developing and managing applications without complexities. The best example of the PaaS or platform as a service is the Microsoft Azure.

1. ii) Advantages: The most important benefits of IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service are the flexibility, scalability, reduced infrastructure costs, immeasurable agility and safety or security.

The most significant benefits of the PaaS or the Platform as a Service are the faster, focusing on the resources, cost effective, time saving and many more (Manvi & Shyam, 2014).

Advantages of Cloud Computing

iii) Problems: The disadvantages of the infrastructure as a service or IaaS include high cost, no control on server and customer responsible for VM management.

The disadvantages of the platform as a service or PaaS include no control on data processing, security issues, time consuming, and tedious.

Due to the high security issues in PaaS, Regional Gardens should opt for the infrastructure as a service or IaaS.

The organization of Regional Gardens Ltd. is migrating their SharePoint 2010 to cloud. They have not selected any specific cloud for their organization. There are three distinct options available for this purpose (Manvi & Shyam, 2014). These three options are the Infrastructure as a service or IaaS, Platform as a Service or PaaS and Software as a Service or SaaS. Several dissimilarities are present between these three options.

Regional Gardens has decided to shift their SharePoint 2010 to cloud. They have considered or taken into consideration all the advantages or disadvantages of the Infrastructure as a service or IaaS, Platform as a Service or PaaS and Software as a Service or SaaS.  After checking all the details of these three cloud models, it is recommended for this particular organization to select the Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS. The main advantage of this cloud service model is the high security. IaaS is very safe and secured and thus the organization could easily shift their SharePoint to cloud without worrying about the data security. Moreover, it helps to reduce the costs of the infrastructure and thus Regional Gardens Ltd. should select this particular cloud service model for their business.

Infrastructure as a service or the IaaS has few of the most significant drawbacks incorporated within it. There are various issues in built within it. The most significant drawback of the infrastructure as a service is the excess cost. It is not possible for the smaller organizations to afford this cloud architecture model (Manvi & Shyam, 2014). For solving this problem, the organization should check for various cost effective systems so that they could balance the cost. The second issue is the dependency of vendor. For solving this problem, Regional Gardens Ltd. should check for all the trustworthy vendors.

References

Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., & Müller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.

Dinh, H. T., Lee, C., Niyato, D., & Wang, P. (2013). A survey of mobile cloud computing: architecture, applications, and approaches. Wireless communications and mobile computing, 13(18), 1587-1611.

Fernando, N., Loke, S. W., & Rahayu, W. (2013). Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future generation computer systems, 29(1), 84-106.

Hashizume, K., Rosado, D. G., Fernández-Medina, E., & Fernandez, E. B. (2013). An analysis of security issues for cloud computing. Journal of internet services and applications, 4(1), 5.

Kavis, M. J. (2014). Architecting the cloud: design decisions for cloud computing service models (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS). John Wiley & Sons.

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.

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

Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security. CRC press.