FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE ONLY

CIS 599

August 17, 2019

Introduction

The company’s operations will result in the generation of large amounts of data, which will necessitate the introduction of tools capable of handling the data. Many organizations are increasingly turning towards cloud technology as the preferred technology tool to effectively deliver the tools and capabilities for the management of the data. On the other hand, the adoption of virtualization will result in cost savings as it is a technology with minimal hardware requirements.

Need for Cloud Technology and Virtualization

Cloud technology delivers computing resources to a client from a remote data center. From their computer terminal, a user can access cloud resources through the use of a browser and with an internet connection. This saves the user or organization the need of installing various technology resources within their premises and having to cater to the accompanying costs of maintaining them. Cloud technology provides organizations with the capability to access multiple computer resources like storage, database, applications, networking, development, and management tools, as well as security solutions from a cloud vendor. The latter will provide a portal where all these resources can be easily accessed. The cloud vendor gets to maintain the physical data centers where all these computing resources are hosted. These resources are always online, meaning a client can access at any time, day or night, from anywhere in the world as long they have an internet connection. It also supports access from various devices, including the ubiquitous mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, further spreading the reach of cloud technology. With virtualization, there will be a maximization of the hardware resources of an organization. Virtualization allows for the creation of virtual machines, and many of them can be created in a single server. This only necessitates the company to keep a small number of servers, which are already available, hence no need to purchase new ones. With a reduced number of physical servers to maintain, it will mean lower costs with the attendant benefits of virtualizations. A virtual machine operates as an independent computing environment, allowing for various operations and applications to run as if on separate physical computers (Bizarro, & Garcia, 2015).

There is always an expectation that a company will experience significant growth over a given period. There is the need to ensure the available tools and resources are indeed capable of supporting such growth. When selecting the technology to be implemented, it will be important to consider its scalability, the capacity to expand in its capabilities to support the increased workload by the organization’s operations. Usually, such growth would require investment in a completely new set of infrastructure since the existing isn’t designed to handle the increased loads. However, given the cost of investing in new infrastructure is high, many organizations prefer acquiring that is capable of adapting to the change in size and scope of its operations with ease. Cloud technology offers a virtually infinite capability for scalability, allowing for capacity to be added on demand. Also, cloud vendors enable the clients to only pay for the capacity they utilize, which can rise or fall depending on the operations. With virtualization, scalability is achieved by the capability to create new virtual machines as needed. A single server can hold a vast number of virtual machines. The available servers can support as many independent computing environments as needed (Krutz, & Vines, 2014).

There is a noted increase in cyberattacks targeted towards corporations, with many of them resulting in devastating consequences for the victim companies. With the current security environment, many organizations understand that these attacks are inevitable. With that in mind, these organizations then come up with mitigation measures that allow them to weather these attacks with minimal damage to their infrastructure and minimal disruption to their operations. With cloud technology, a company is provided with a solution for disaster recovery that allows it to avoid these damages. Since the cloud vendor is responsible for hosting the computer resources, they put in place measures that ensure an attacker is severely limited in the amount of damage and disruption they can cause. These include defense-in-depth and segmentation, among other security solutions. A successful attack is unlikely to cause any noticeable damage, with the system able to be restored in less time than if it was hosted within a company’s premises. Regular backups ensure that the most recent versions of computer resources are always available, allowing for operations to resume as soon as possible. Most cloud vendors have data centers in many different locations, allowing for one to take over should another fail. A virtualization solution provides for independent environments which ensure that the failure of one virtual machine will not result in the failure of others within the same server (Pearson, 2013).

Cost Savings in Hardware Infrastructure

Investment in hardware infrastructure is usually one of the biggest IT costs for many organizations. Beyond the initial investment, they also have to factor in the cost of maintenance, including the qualified personnel. With the speed of the advancement of technology, more often than not, a company might find itself with hardware that has essentially been rendered obsolete, necessitating further investment. However, with cloud technology, a company no longer has to worry about how much to spend on hardware. The cloud vendor is responsible for physical data centers where the resources are hosted, along with the attendant costs of maintaining the centers and their hardware. As a result of economies of scale, they can pass along the savings to their customers, resulting in lower prices. The company will only need internet-capable devices to access their cloud-hosted resources, with no further need for investment in any hardware from them. Virtualization only requires a few servers, with the company having no need for the excess servers. With the capability to host a huge of virtual machines, the cost of hardware maintenance can be kept as low as possible (Krutz, & Vines, 2014).

For many organizations in their early stages of growth, they are limited in the number of funds available to them. As such, the implementation of technology that requires minimal investment in hardware is a benefit to them. On top of that, cloud vendors can offer top-notch services at considerably lower prices, allowing the company to have access to superior solutions and technologies without the high investment and maintenance costs (Pearson, 2013).

Reduction in Human Capital

With the cloud vendor handling most of the responsibilities necessary to ensure the continued availability of resources and services to customers, the company will not need to employ its personnel. The company will only maintain a minimal workforce as far as the system is concerned, having a lower human capital spend on this aspect of its operations. Most of the activities and operations will be automated, with human involvement only being done when it is it is necessary. These will mostly be a few system administrators with privileges and will take over when needed to only (Krutz, & Vines, 2014).

Aligning Cloud Technology to Business Processes

Solution Providers

The largest cloud vendor currently is Amazon Web Services (AWS), who are pioneers in the enterprise cloud market. Other companies in the market include Microsoft Cloud and Google Cloud Platform. With its longevity operating in this sector, AWS has been able to implement advanced technology and deliver quality services to its customers, making the best option for the company. AWS can provide storage, applications, database, and database management, computer services, networking, analytic tools to carry out big data solutions as well as security and development tools. AWS allows for its clients to only pay for the capacity they utilize, hence lower while availing the capability scale as needed.

References

Bizarro, P. A., & Garcia, A. (2015). VIRTUALIZATION: BENEFITS, RISKS, AND CONTROL. Internal Auditing, 28(4), 11-18.

Krutz, R. L., & Vines, R. D. (2014). Cloud security: A comprehensive guide to secure cloud computing. Wiley Publishing.

Pearson, S. (2013). Privacy, security, and trust in cloud computing. In Privacy and Security for Cloud Computing (pp. 3-42). Springer London.