Candidate Architecture Document for HCareNZ: Evaluating Cloud Computing

Your team has joined a chain of national Health Care provider in New Zealand called ?HCareNZ?. The company runs health centers across the country and provides valuable services with their customers. At the time of your appointment, the company was going through the process of evaluating cloud computing and has decided to move their technology infrastructure, platforms, data, and software applications to the cloud. However, the decision on the modalities and architecture?? of?? such ??a ??move ??is?? not ??decided.

As your team’s first job assignment, you are asked to create a Candidate Architecture Document for the company. A ?Candidate Architecture Document is a management level report that discusses the pros and cons of different architectures that the company can opt for. This document will be pivotal in deciding the type of ?HCareNZ services (like doctor’s appointment and online medical records etc.) the company would like to move to the cloud environment and any ?liabilities ??they?? would??have??to??accept.

Before you begin working on the document, you need to understand their current technology architecture,??what?? they?? want ??to ??do?? in?? the?? near ??future?? and?? potential?? long-term?? plans.

Current?? Situation

Present information technology (IT) infrastructure is on-premises. They have developed a specialized application for managing the patient records (i.e. electronic medical record or EMR), doctor’s appointments, prescription records, and staff attendance. Individual patient has to call the health Centre to book an appointment and a staff member to assist them in doing so. A good portion??of??their??customers??are??of??old??age??and??might??not??be??that??familiar??with??computers.??

Individual health centres do not share their patient information with other health centres until the patient request to do so. That in most cases is carried out when patients move their residences and want to register to the health centre near their new residences. Such a move is performed securely using strong cryptographic mechanisms and offline chain of trust courier. The mechanisms require the patients’ data to be encrypted and copied onto USB sticks that are then couriered ??to ??the ??destination?? health?? centres.

It? ?is? ?assumed? ?that? ?your? ?report? ?(i.e.? ??Candidate Architecture Document)? ?is? ?going? ?to? ?be? ?read? ?by? ?the top? ?management? ?who? ?may? ?not? ?be? ?technical? ?experts.? ?Therefore,? ?you? ?should? ?write? ?in? ?layman’s terms? ?and? ?provide? ?pros? ?and? ?cons? ?of? ?individual? ?suggestions.? ?The? ?main? ?points? ?your? ?report? ?should cover? ?are? ?listed? ?as? ?below:

1.[20? ?marks]?? ?? ?Discuss? ?different? ?cloud? ?architectures? ?(i.e.? ?Software-as-a-Service,? ?Platform- as-a-Service,? ?and? ?Infrastructure-as-a-Service)? ?and? ?their? ?relevance? ?to? ??HCareNZ.

2.[20 marks] Discuss cloud data security and application security issues and potential solutions? ?in? ?the? ?context? ?of? ??HCareNZ.

3.? [20 marks] ?Design and discuss a secure software development life cycle (SDLC) in the context? ?of? ??HCareNZ.

4. [20 marks] Discuss cloud operations along with scalability, availability, and flexibility of the? ?overall? ?architecture.? ?Keep? ?in? ?mind? ?the? ??HCareNZ ’s? ?long? ?term? ?plan. 

5.[20 marks] ?Discuss legal and compliance issues concerning the ?HCareNZ ’s plans for the? ?cloud? ?deployment.