Selecting The Best Architecture For Cloud Networking: An Essay On Soft-Arc.

Types of Cloud Architecture

Question:

Discuss about the Soft-Arc and Cloud Migration strategy.

Preface: Soft-Arc finally decided to take up cloud services inorder to let his operational centers be integrated for operational flexibility. The networked operational centers are considered to be the most viable option for Soft-Arc for enabling more ease and convenience in its operations. Further rather than LAN or WAN, Cloud based networking will fit well for the current conditions of the Soft-Arc and this will be useful for integrating all the four operational centers of Soft-Arc located in different countries. The following part of the discussion is discussion provided to emphasize different aspects of the cloud networking for Soft-Arc. Typical issues like security aspects, selection of particular networking configuration, migration processes and procedures, resource management are some of the key issues discussed in the report(Armburst et al., 2010).

Public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud architectures are the three options available for the engineering services company and finally the company taken up hybrid cloud architecture for its operational requirements. There is reason to select hybrid cloud architecture. Hybrid cloud architecture will provide both the features of cost effectiveness as well will provide the maximum security for the critical information exchange on cloud. Hence it is considered for the current requirements of Soft-Arc.

Irrespective of the type of the cloud service selected, public, private or hybrid architecture the basic configuration of the cloud architecture consist of few distinct layers as shown in fig-1

Table 1 Cloud architecture

The selection of the particular cloud architectural features for the company services will depend on the actual requirement. For example software as a service feature will be employed in the cases where only the application services of the organization are expected to be taken from the cloud. Typical examples of such Software as a service (SaaS) type of provision are Google Apps etc. Platform as a service will require the organization to take up the platform as well the necessary and appropriate hardware for the organizational requirements and typical examples of it are, GAE, Microsoft’s Azure etc. Infrastructural usage as a service is another key application of the cloud services where in only the data storage and access services are used by cloud and the service can be taken up only when it is actually required. The service is cost effective and versatile too. Typical examples are GoGrid, Flexi-scale, Joyent and Mosso/Rackspace.

Public cloud will typically consist of taking up of the services as and when needed only. Pay per use is the unique characteristic of this service. It is quite cost effective as it will not require to pay when not in use. Also when there is no service, absolutely there won’t be any charge for the service. However there are complications and vulnerabilities exist in the system in the security point of view. The data of the client during the public loud operations is vulnerable to breach and always there is need for the customers to employ data security measures at the client end as well as the service provider end. Private cloud is the actual service that utilizes the organization’s internal data center for the sake of data storage and information exchange requirements. The key advantage for this service is that it is more flexible and easy to control the operations of private cloud. Also the typical management of the maintenance and upgrades can be done without consideration to the third party interests. All  the resources and the applications of the private cloud are actually managed by the organization itself in the private cloud operations. Security characteristics of the private cloud are much superior when compared with the public cloud operations. Hybrid cloud is actually a combination of the public and private clouds. Typically a private cloud in this architecture will be linked with two or more external clouds and this in turn will be used for the sake of controlling the data and applications. This will also allow the party to access the information over the internet. Hence it is possible to schedule the resources of the private and the public cloud as required in such hybrid cloud operations.

Cloud Architecture Configuration

When compared with the enterprise data centers usage for the organizational requirements, using Cloud services will definitely will promote better facilitation and relief from the unwanted requirements of the maintenance, management,  utility management human resource usage etc. All these services are actually not required in any of the cloud service, since they will be managed by the third party. However in private cloud operations part fo the private cloud can be installed either in the premises of the organization or totally in the control of the third party operations. In any case the minimum security and the required integrity of the service is well assured in this cloud service operations. However the security of the services is not as safe in enterprise data centers usage or on-premise private cloud operations, when compared in the public cloud operations. The cost of the cloud service is quite higher in the private clouds when compared with the public clouds. However it can be cheaper when compared with the on premise data centers usage. But still it can be costlier when compared with the collocation services. However real time scalability, relief for the internal human resources are some of the best possible opportunities that the cloud service can offer to the organizations in general. Finally for providing a cost effective and optimum solution hybrid cloud service is selected for the soft Arc and it is proposed to be implemented for the Soft-Arc networking requirements of data exchange and data storage requirements.

• Hybrid cloud being more complex when compared with the private and public clouds there are inevitable operational risks associated in the technology. There is need to enforce more stringent operational controls in the hybrid cloud architectures and this in turn will make the operational management more complex. Hybrid cloud systems do have more complex data sharing and data redundancy applications and hence it is very much required for the organizations to keep well managed plans for the sake of facing all types of operational risk and there is possibility for the organizations to draft solutions considering these risks. The key risks possible are operational management risks, security integration and compliance failure risks.
• In hybrid cloud very major problem is the possibility of the integration failure of the public and private cloud security compliances. It is required that the security compliance drafting and integration on public and private clouds is quite difficult and making them aligned is one of the key tasks that the organizations need to focus on in this aspect. Data sharing and the data exchange is actually a process that need to be in compliance and aligned with the procedural and protocol alignment on both the public and private clouds simultaneously.
• SLAs on the private and public cloud should be aligned and integrated without any gaps in technical as well as in the administrative aspects of the functionality. Unless the integration is completely fool-proof there is no scope for the organizational functionality without any problem. Further there is need for the strict compliance with the regulations and the procedural compliances. They should be well aligned on both the systems and the integration need to be well in line with the system requirements which are generally very complex. Any failure in this will result either in the operational failure or even will result in the form of risk of information loss or security breach.
• There is always need to use excellent operational skills for managing the cloud services. It is required that the system administrators of the organization need to possess excellent technical skills for managing and administrating the hybrid cloud architectures. There can be number of problem escalations if there is failure on their part in meeting the required technical requirements.
• Security compliance, service and protocol synchronization are some of the several complex functions required for making use of hybrid architecture. There is high risk as the process of integration of the services is quite complex and there is need for a more meticulous integration of the services required for patching the two different systems in place in a hybrid cloud architecture(Carlin& Curran,2011).

Table 2Risk List and possible control strategies

There is need for the Soft-Arc hybrid cloud architecture to be provided with all the necessary security controls. A range of controls will be needed for fault proof operation of hybrid cloud architecture. Some of the key features are Deterrent controls, preventive controls, corrective and detective controls on cloud(Chen&Zhao,2012). A comprehensive control system on cloud will work on to eliminate any security flaw if available on cloud as and when it occur and will result in long time sustenance of the cloud service. Apart from the implementation of the cloud contrl services it is also required to implement typical security broker agencies to let the process is functioning faultlessly(Buyya et al., 2011).

There is need to enforce system elasticity by making the application resilience enabled in the organization. Sufficient care should have been taken to let the logistical barriers be minimized in the system. There should not be any type of delay in latency and also there should not be any failure of any type in executing the compliances to be implemented in the overall cloud structure and during the enabling of the integration of the resources of the hybrid cloud architecture(Hybrid,2013). Both making the system failure proof with good operational practices implementation as well keeping the services better operational with implementation of the recovery systems is essential for the organization to function well. Provision for multiple data centers and data redundancy requirements and provision for focus on integrity are some of the several issues to be taken care of during the integration of the cloud services in the organization. Back up will be case sensitive and the resources to be employed in line with the facilities in use. For example Amanda, Duplicity, Acronis backup are some of the services to be employed as backup for Linux Red hat OS(De Chaves et al., 2011).

Comparison with Enterprise Data Centers

Remote server management  is one of the key aspects of the resource management facilities of the hybrid cloud. Remote server management both for the sake of premise and the remote cloud architectures is to be enabled on hybrid cloud architectures. Virtualization services will enable better service quality and service management in resource management in the cloud services. Resource management will inevitably consist of regulatory compliance management. There is chance that AWS can be upto 99% service in these systems. There is maximum chance for the usage of resources like S3, Route 53 etc. Using Right SLA for communication, trouble shooting and installation are the major requirements of the resource management part of the hybrid cloud operations(Furht,2010).

Migration of the resources on to the cloud should be fault proof and secured enough to avoid data breach. The following standard procedures will indicate how the migration process will commence for the sake of SQL server as well for the sake of share point migration processes(Hu et al., 2011).

SQL 2012 instance migration:

• AWS management console activation
• Instance launching
• Amazon EC2- deployment of the instance
• Completing the licensing protocols.
• Selection of the instance type
• Enabling the virtual private cloud on VPC

Share point instance migration:

• Preplanning of the services
• Working with simple work loads
• LCM(Life cycle management)
• Experiences need to be simple and future proof
• Preparing an efficient intranet.

Issues and Advantages:

• Size and content of the cloud is very complex
• Permission and control of the accesses during the migration process quite complex.
• Migration prone to breach of security and loss of authorization process.
• Chances of loss of confidential data during the migration process and may result in later time complications

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