Cloud Concerns

Running head: CLOUD PROPOSAL 1

Title Page…………………………………………………………………………... 1

Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………. 2

Section 1: Cloud Providers and Cost Saving Analysis……………………………. 3

Types of Cloud Deployments ……………………………………………………….3

Types of Service Models…………………………………………………………... 3

Cloud Computing Company Comparisons………………………………………. 4

Software as a Service Providers…………………………………………………… 8

First SaaS Provider………………………………………………………………… 8

Second SaaS Provider……………………………………………………………… 9

First IDaaS Provider……………………………………………………………….10

Second IDaaS Provider…………………………………………………………… 10

Section 3: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) for Supply Chain…………………………………………………………………………………...12

References………………………………………………………………………………19

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud-based solutions have been on the rise in the recent past in providing many solutions. Various companies are doing away with the in-house staff operations method, and instead, they are shifting their focus to the technology-oriented approach. Cloud Computing is a broad term that is used to describe web-based services that the individual can use to reduce the requirements for physical hardware, software, and personnel. ("What is Cloud Computing?", 2018)

Types of Cloud Deployments

Public Clouds

A public cloud is considered a publicly accessible cloud environment usually offered by a third-party cloud provider. The resources on public clouds are replaced from the previously described cloud delivery models and given to cloud consumers at a cost. The cloud provider is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the public cloud and its IT resources ("What is Cloud Computing?", 2018).

Community Clouds

This cloud is defined as an exclusive member of the community. Owned by community members or other parties they establish a public cloud that has restricted access. Being a member of the community does not assure access to all the IT resources. Outside parties are rarely given access. ("What is Cloud Computing?", 2018)

Private Clouds

In a private cloud, the same company is the cloud consumer and cloud provider. To differentiate these roles: a separate organizational department typically assumes the responsibility for provisioning the cloud (and therefore assumes the cloud provider role) departments requiring access to the private cloud assume the cloud consumer role. ("What is Cloud Computing?", 2018)

Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud is a cloud environment containing two or more different cloud deployment models. The cloud consumer may deploy cloud services sending sensitive data to a private cloud and less sensitive cloud services to a public cloud. ("What is Cloud Computing?", 2018)

Types of Service Models

After researching and choosing the deployment model, the next step is to study the three types of service models that are available to your company, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). (Schultz, 2011)

Software as a Service provides all hardware and software required and performs all upgrades. This type of service is chosen for the web- delivered content such as email and collaboration software and requires very little administration.

Platform as a Service will provide all hardware, generally in the form of virtual servers, and background software such as operating systems, and database software. (Schultz, 2011)

Infrastructure as a Service provides and maintains only hardware resources; these resources are either physical servers or virtual servers. The user must purchase, install and maintain all software requirements (Schultz, 2011)

Cost of Operation of a Physical Server

When deciding on a physical server or a cloud server, there is a lot of research to help figure out if the cost is worth keeping a physical server maintained and ran or moving to a different option such as a cloud server.

The chart below shows the expected expenses that a company is looking forward to the first year an in-house server; the software portion is examples of typically used software and operating systems. This price is for a single server, if the company decides it needs more servers it will cost more.

Cloud Computing Company Comparisons

It has been decided to move forward constructing your General Offices Function requirements in the cloud; this means a lot of research will be done to compare different cloud computing companies to find one that meets your needs for your company. Some of the main things to look for is the cost, how quick they can have you set up and running, ability to scale as the business grow, the scaling they are capable of, operating system platforms. Here is a comparison of four first cloud providers. (Liu, 2016)

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Recommendation for General Office Function

The General Office Function allows for communication within the company. This function requirements including being able to send and receive an email, the ability to collaborate on a project, and quickly compile and share information. To utilize cloud computing for this, I would recommend the use of a Hybrid Cloud with a Platform as a Service and IDaaS

A Hybrid Cloud will give the employees access their email, and collaboration resources anywhere in the world, while the PaaS would give the company the ability to manage their user accounts and securely access to collaboration tools based on administrative guidance. PaaS will a prevent the need for a high-level server administrator to maintain operating systems and secondary software. IDaaS includes user authentication, Single Sign-on (SSO), and authorization enforcement which will reduce the need to remember a lot of passwords. (Edward, 2017)

Section 2: Software as a Service (SaaS) and Identity as a Service (IDaas) Plan

Software as a Service Providers

With all the Software as a Service (SaaS) companies within the cloud, being able to pick the proper company to provide services for the Widget division, since each one has their available software specialties and advantages and disadvantages, think about the requirements that these companies will need to support. XYZ has claimed they were interested in a SaaS provider for necessary office administration and collaboration functions in the Widget division. I have developed an analysis of two SaaS companies that can provide webmail, messaging, document sharing, and project management.

1st Cloud9

Hosted Mail by OCcloud9 offers high availability and load balanced platform that provides optimal protection against downtime. Our Servers are self-monitoring. When a problem is detected, as a performance slowdown or a lack of available disk space, the server will automatically act and seamlessly move users to another mail server.

2nd Reval.

"There's so little innovation in some legacy functions, and this is just one example where SaaS brings much-needed newer functionality," he adds. Reval is an example of how the SaaS model is penetrating critical business areas - in this case, finance - at even the largest of companies, says Commonwealth's Perreault. Reval is the leading, global provider of cloud treasury software. Our scalable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution helps more than 650 companies around the world to better manage cash, liquidity, financial risk and hedge accounting. Reval runs over a service-oriented architecture, using a Microsoft.Net framework and providing a Simple Object Application Protocol-compliant distributed system built on a Web Services architecture, provides the ability to integrate treasury management and other enterprise systems using standard data exchange protocols,

(Schultz, 2011)

"There's so little innovation in some legacy functions, and this is just one example where SaaS brings much-needed newer functionality," he adds. Reval is an example of how the SaaS model is penetrating critical business areas - in this case, finance - at even the largest of companies, says Commonwealth's Perreault. Reval is the leading, global provider of cloud treasury software. Our scalable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution helps more than 650 companies around the world to better manage cash, liquidity, financial risk and hedge accounting. Reval runs over a service-oriented architecture, using a Microsoft .Net framework and providing a Simple Object Application Protocol-compliant distributed system built on a Web Services architecture, provides the ability to integrate treasury management and other enterprise systems using common data exchange protocols. (Schultz, 2011)

Identity as a Service Providers

A cloud-based service that provides a set of identity and access management functions to target systems on customers' premises and in the cloud and includes user authentication, Single Sign-on (SSO), and authorization enforcement.

competitors. (Edward, 2017)

1st Okta

Management service provides directory services, SSO, secure authentication, provisioning, workflow, and reporting; all delivered as a multitenant. Okta's directory service has the capabilities to automatically import existing users from a variety of directories, easily provision (create) and provision (deactivate). You save a lot of time using Okta because there is no need to try remembering lots of credentials. It allows you to connect to your services from the same UI. Its interface is straightforward to use and learn. Packaging a good number of components into a single pane of glass (unlike, say, Microsoft's solution which requires a bunch of disparate systems). You get a log of value for your money. The support and development teams are responsive. The support for single sign-on to non-SSO apps with the browser plugin is beneficial. The product looks nice and is easy for end users to use. The Okta Application Network has far more apps total, with SAML support, and with provisioning support than the competitors. (Edward, 2017)

2nd OneLogin

OneLogin provides an on-demand IDaaS solution of single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, directory integration, user provisioning, and a catalog of pre-integrated applications OneLogin has taken a standards-based approach to application integration and established itself as a thought leader in the field of authentication added adaptive authentication support to its platform. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is the norm to preventing unauthorized users accessing corporate data with passwords alone. Protect your organization against attacks with policy-based access control for sign-in and password reset based on location, application and user privilege level. (Edward, 2017)

Migration Plan

The First Step in Migration

License costs/plan – does the company have a good understanding of them? You must go over what you already have in place and what your budget will be.

R&D development / Maintenance costs –Are the prices internal, outsourced or part of a service? Integrations / Interfaces – Be aware the places that your systems connect, integrate, and interface with other systems and other services. You really do not want to discover post-migration. Risks – Find out what risks you are exposed to and determine how to overcome these in your move to the cloud. ("6 steps to successfully migrate your organization to cloud", 2014)

The Second Step in Migration

Identify key users and encourage them – Get them involved in the project from the start and listen to their feedback. Get all of management on board (at high- and mid-level) explain new features and give them training. Revise your policies, working procedures and assure that everything is ready for the new work environment. Monitor usage, interfaces, data migration. Check that emails are coming in, check that transactions are going through, check the logs of your interfaces to ensure that they are working. Hold status meetings and expect surprises. IT teams are only human, small mistakes can happen, the important thing is to fix them as soon as you are made aware of them. ("6 steps to successfully migrate your organization to cloud", 2014)

Section 3: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) for Supply Chain

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Platform as A Service (PaaS) refers to a type of cloud computing services which offers a platform that allows the development, running and management of applications while at the same time avoiding the complexity that involves building and maintenance of infrastructure which are typically related to the development and launching of an app. There are three possible ways in which PaaS can be delivered; first, it can be provided regarding public cloud service that originates from a provider. Here, the customer controls the deployment of the software with limited configuration options, while the provision of the servers, networks, storage, middleware (for example; Java runtime, integration, and .NET runtime), operating system, database, as well as other services that are necessary for hosting consumer applications, are left to the provider. Secondly, PaaS could be delivered like a private service (appliance or software) inside a firewall. Thirdly, it could be provided as deployed software and as a service on public infrastructure (Sullivan, 2014).

When selecting and evaluating PaaS provider certain things are considered, for example, server-side technologies offered by the vendor, programming languages, and options for data storage. Support for the integration of applications and developer tools are also an essential consideration as since it will determine the combination of PaaS with other forms. It is also vital to consider the costs involved in an evaluation of the pricing model. The following are three potential PaaS providers; Engine Yard, Google App Engine and Red Hat Open Shift.

For Engine Yard, there are various benefits associated. First of all, there is easy integration as far as integration with both private and public Git repositories is concerned. Again, with this provider, there is optimum control regarding virtual machine instances in comparison to other providers of PaaS. Furthermore, there are dedicated instances which do not have multi-tenancy at the level of the virtual machine. Again, Engine Yard allows faster innovation as it enhances agility. This is because with Engine Yard servers can easily be configured. Finally, the provider enables the client to save money and other resources. This is because the costs would be lowered by five times compared to a situation whereby the client would have to pay the indirect and direct costs of managing own infrastructure. However, the PaaS provider has its supported languages confined to Grubby, REE, Node.js, PHP and Rubinius. The pricing is settled based on the model of ‘pay as you go' which has options premium and standard support. The prices fall between US$ 0.05 an hour per every instance and the US $ 2.19 an hour for every instance which depends on the client's configuration.

The benefits associated with Red Hat Open Shift include among others; offering a multiple of languages, components, and databases. Secondly, with this provider, the PaaS is hugely customizable. Furthermore, Open Shift enables the automation of system administration activities including provisioning of virtual servers, scaling, and configuration along with supporting Git repositories for the management of codes. However, although it works perfectly with Git, non-Git deployments may demand extra steps. The budgeting of Open Shift would entail online pricing based on types and number of components referred to as gears that are deployed. The prices of such equipment fall between US$ 0.02 an hour and US$ 0.10 an hour, but it depends on the size, for example, 2 GB (big), 1 GB(medium) and 512 MB(small). A support plan goes for US$20 a month in addition to usage costs (Sullivan, 2014).

Google App Engine is beneficial to the client in the sense that it supports developers and web applications using Python, Java Go, and PHP. The Java supports various languages. The PaaS provides managed runtime environments and infrastructure which are assured to scale if the apps suit the Google App Engine's restrictions. The risk involved is that the programming languages are restricted to Python, Java, PHP and Go. The budgetary information regarding pricing is; US$ 0.08 an hour per instance on demand or US $ 0.05 an hour (for a reserved example). The price for the data store is US$ 0.18 per GB for every month while the cost of bandwidth is US$ 0.12 per GB. There are other service costs and might apply.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) for Supply Chain

Among the three PaaS providers, I would go for Red Hat Open Shift due to several reasons. First and foremost, it supports multiple languages, databases, and frameworks on the same platform. This means that clients can take advantage of the Docker ecosystem. Secondly, Open Shift offers a container-based platform that is immutable, and there is the possibility of deploying and running microservices and applications. Thirdly, Open Shift allows the automation of deployments, application builds, scaling, etc. from Kubernetes. Additionally, with Open Shift, there are multiple interaction models. Lastly, there is the capability of incorporating persistence into application components while at the same time providing stateless cloud natural design (Sullivan, 2014). The table below represents budgetary information about pricing,

Note: Silver support plan goes for US$ 20 per month in addition to usage costs. Bonus of three small gears as well as 1 GB of storage for every gear are free of charge

Section 4: Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS)

Key Benefits of Infrastructure as a Service

Infrastructure as a Service is a cloud computing model that provides outsourced computing resources and equipment to individuals and organizations on a pay as you go framework. These resources include servers, storage services, network connections and load balancing features and are owned and maintained by IaaS providers who avail them to subscribers through a rent subscription model. This model offers a lot of flexibility to organizations as they can easily scale new and existing applications to their customers thus facilitating fast growth. Of recent, organizations are less concerned on whether to use the IaaS services, instead concerned on which IaaS providers to choose from based on their differing management functions, customer support, identity management, service level agreements and monitoring tools among other factors. IaaS service Model is mostly used for development and deployment of the other service models as well as web applications. Of the 42 top IaaS Providers (Stringfellow, 2017) I would opt to choose Amazon AWS, Google Compute and Microsoft Azure in relation to the benefits

IaaS Provider Comparison

Amazon AWS is an optimal choice when it comes to offering computing and storage resources which include on-demand instances to specialized services such as the hosted Elastic Map Reduce (EMR) and Cluster GPU which provides high performing specialized graphics to public cloud subscribers. Similarly, S3 block storage, EBS and SSD storage offerings offer a high performing storage gateway necessary for integrating the organizational premises with the cloud. Auto-scaling and load balancing infrastructural services are also entirely provided by Amazon AWS cloud providers. Amazon Web Service Elastic Compute Cloud supports Para Virtualization, as well as Hardware, assisted Virtual Machine which relies on Xen Virtualization and is attributed to benefits like better support, scalability and low pricing ("Virtualization in Amazon Web Services," 2017). Amazon Web Services," 2017).

Secondly, the Windows Azure provides an easy to use infrastructure which is not limited to Windows users only although storage and computer services offered are efficiently used with Microsoft platforms such as the creation of SQL Server database. The IaaS cloud providers render a structure where the cloud subscribers can build, deploy as well as manage applications. The key features provided include ease of use, ability be used as PaaS and provision of an administrative tool. Users can as well access to virtual networks and can easily create virtual instances using a wizard guide creation or Quick Create option. The Microsoft Azure ™ platform is as well beneficial since it delivers an ability to auto scale user applications in response to the current changing demands. In addition, IaaS VM Guest Clustering is a key benefit to users of Microsoft Azure IaaS service model ("Getting Started with the Cloud: Microsoft Windows Azure - IaaS Buyer's Guide," 2013).

Finally, the Google Compute is well suited for analytics focused applications such as big data and data warehousing along with good integration to other Google Services, for instance, Google Cloud SQL, Big Query and Cloud storage which is provided in Google Cloud Storage or persistent disks options. Its enhancements to run on a Google global infrastructure including an efficiently operating data centers and a privately owned global fiber sets the IaaS provider apart. The data storage, data insensitive analysis and batch provisions as well as virtualized but limited general purpose resources IaaS are top priorities benefits of using this IaaS provider. Besides, the Cloud’s infrastructural feature is designed for scale and cluster updating and deleting through API clusters ensures easier management of clustering features. The Google IaaS groups virtual machines into standard, high memory and CPU each with a different price range and offers Linux distributions but not Microsoft Windows OS.

References:

Getting Started with the Cloud: Microsoft Windows Azure - IaaS Buyer's Guide. (2013, March 28). Retrieved from http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/-SLA-paas-iaas-high_availability-cloud_computing,2-469.html

Liu, A. (2016). Top 10 Best Cloud Providers 2016. cloudspectator. Retrieved 27 February 2018, from http:///cloudspectator.com/best-cloud-providers-2016/

Schultz, B. (2011). 10 Software as a service (SaaS) companies to watch. Retrieved 23 February 2018, from http://ttps://www.networkworld.com/article/2177308/saas/10-saas-companies-to-watch.html?page=2

Seven IDaaS Vendors to Watch in 2018. solutionsreview. Retrieved 22 March 2018, from https://solutionsreview.com/identity-management/idaas-vendors-to-watch-2018/

6 steps to successfully migrate your organization to cloud. (2014). /blog.sysaid.com/. Retrieved from http://://blog.sysaid.com/entry/6-steps-to-successfully-migrate-your-organization-to-cloud

Stringfellow, A. (2017, October 17). Top IaaS Providers: Best Solutions for Public, Private, and Hybrid Clouds. Retrieved from https://stackify.com/top-iaas-providers/

Sullivan, D. (2014). PaaS Providers List: Comparison and Guide. Retrieved from Https://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/paas-providers,1-1517.html.

UpGuard. (2015, February 16). Cloud IaaS Provider Roundup: Best of the Best. Retrieved from https://www.upguard.com/articles/cloud-service-provider-roundup-the-best-of-the-best

Virtualization in Amazon Web Services. (2017, May 3). Retrieved from https://blog.cloudthat.com/virtualization-in-amazon-web-services/

What is Cloud Computing? (2018). What is Cloud Computing? Retrieved 20 February 2018, from http://www.whatiscloud.com/origins_and_influences/a_brief_history