Cloud Computing: Services, Security & Challenges

This assignment delves into the core concepts of cloud computing. It examines various service models offered by cloud providers, such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). The assignment also highlights key security concerns associated with cloud environments, discussing measures to protect data integrity and user privacy. Furthermore, it explores current and emerging challenges in cloud computing, including scalability, interoperability, and regulatory compliance.

Running head: CASE STUDY ON CLOUD COMPUTING
Assessment Number
Case Study on Cloud Computing
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CASE STUDY ON CLOUD COMPUTING
Executive Summary
The objective of this report is to understand the case study of Webb’s Stores. One of the most
popular and recognized retailer is Webb’s stores. Based in Australia, this particular organization
sells all sorts of food items. They also sell some of the important specialty stuffs. There are two
major data centers of this organization. One is in Sydney and the other one is in Melbourne.
These two data centers do the main task of sending and receiving data. However, this
organization also has some of their data centers regionally. These regional data centers are
present in Auckland, Bathurst, Wagga, Brisbane and Port Macquarie. In recent days, Webb’s
Stores have decided to shift their entire database to Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS instance
in cloud. The aim of this report is understand the entire process of migration of data MS SQL to
IaaS.
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................3
Discussion...................................................................................................................................... 3
1. Data Migration.......................................................................................................................3
1.a Type of Cloud Security Deployed.....................................................................................3
1.b Advantages and Problems of Cloud Security Deployment...............................................3
2. Probable Risks in the Migration of Data.................................................................................4
2.a The Database................................................................................................................... 4
2.b The IaaS Infrastructure.................................................................................................... 4
2.c The Communications........................................................................................................5
3. Cloud of Backup and Removal of Records..............................................................................5
3.a Risks with Backup of Data................................................................................................5
3.b Cloud Backup in DR Plans.................................................................................................5
4. Protection of Access and Recommendations.........................................................................6
4.a IaaS Infrastructure............................................................................................................6
4.b MS SQL Server 2012 R2 Cloud Instance...........................................................................6
4.c Cloud Network Infrastructure..........................................................................................6
4.d Cloud Backup and Restore Infrastructure........................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 7
References..................................................................................................................................... 8
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Introduction
One of the most popular and recognized retailer is Webb’s stores. Based in Australia,
this particular organization sells all sorts of food items. They also sell some of the important
specialty stuffs (Almorsy, Grundy & Müller, 2016). There are two major data centers of this
organization. One is in Sydney and the other one is in Melbourne. These two data centers do
the main task of sending and receiving data. However, this organization also has some of their
data centers regionally. These regional data centers are present in Auckland, Bathurst, Wagga,
Brisbane and Port Macquarie. In recent days, Webb’s Stores have decided to shift their entire
database to Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS instance in cloud. Previously, their database was
in MS SQL Server 2012 R2. The organizational bodies of Webb’s Stores have taken a decision of
undertaking various tools and techniques of cloud computing in their business. Cloud
computing is the safest procedure of transferring bulk amount of data within lowest time. This
particular decision has raised many problems like data management and complexities of the
operational and application software (Avram, 2014). Due to these problems, the data
management has become a major problem for the company. The regional data center in
Auckland has a traditional infrastructure and due to this reason, Webb’s Stores have decided to
close down the entire infrastructure. Instead of closing the data center, they could have easily
upgraded the infrastructure. A workshop for Security and Risk is scheduled to organize for the
probable security risks access and the probable controlling measures.
The report outlines a brief description about Webb’s Stores. The report explains about
the advantages of migration of data to the cloud infrastructure. The possible risks are also given
in the following report for Webb’s Stores. The utilization of migration data for Webb’s stores
are also mentioned here. Proper mitigation plans are also given in the report with details. The
recommendations are also provided for the risks.
Discussion
1. Data Migration
1.a Type of Cloud Security Deployed
Webb’s Stores should opt for authorization and authentication policy as their security
policy of cloud (Arora, Parashar & Transforming, 2013). This is the authenticated permission
provided to an organization or individual to perform their tasks. Authentication usually verifies
the identity of a user. The security policy is highly recommended for Webb’s Stores as they are
moving their database to IaaS instance from MS SQL Server R2. This particular database will
help the organization in verifying the original and authenticated users. The best IaaS instances
for any organization are the Azure and AWS (Fernando, Loke & Rahayu, 2013). These
infrastructures of cloud help in transfer of data securely.
1.b Advantages and Problems of Cloud Security Deployment
The advantages that is gained after deploying the said policy are as follows:
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i) Cost Effective: This particular policy is absolutely cost effective and is affordable for all
organizations.
ii) Security: The second advantage of this security policy is that it is highly secured and
there is less chance of losing data.
iii) Scalability: This policy makes the entire system scalable.
iv) Flexibility: The moment the authentication and authorization policy is deployed, the
system becomes flexible (Hashem et al., 2013).
The issues that can be faced by Webb’s Stores after deployment of authentication and
authorization policy are as follows:
i) Encryption: Encryption is a must process for all messages and this makes the database
slower.
ii) Complexity: The implementation of this policy is extremely complicated sometimes.
iii) Brute Force Attacks: This types of attacks are common for this policy where the
hacker hacks the password of the system (Li et al., 2013).
2. Probable Risks in the Migration of Data
2.a The Database
There is always a high chance of risk in migration of data in a database. The risks that
are common during migration in case of database are as follows:
i) Loss of Data: The most common risk in case of data migration is the loss of data. Most
of the time, while transferring the data t other database, it gets lost completely.
ii) Corruption of Database: This is the second dangerous problem that occurs during
migration of data (Xiao, Song & Chen, 2013). The whole database gets corrupted and cannot be
recovered. This is extremely dangerous from any organization as all information is lost.
2.b The IaaS Infrastructure
The security risks or threats that are faced by the infrastructure of cloud are as follows:
i) DoS Attacks: DoS or denial-of-service attacks are the most probable security risks for
any information system. This is occured in the infrastructure of a company. When a particular
user utilizes all of his resources present in the cloud, the all over quality of several services,
which any other user, is using, gets degraded (Avram, 2014). The hackers wait for this moment
and hacks all the information and resources for slowing down the service or simply denying the
services. This is called a denial of service or DoS attacks. It often occurs over a series of
computers or systems, whichis known as Distributed Denial of Service or DDoS attack.
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ii) Insider Threats: While the data is migrated to another database, the infrastructure of
the cloud allows the admin to access both the database and data. These particular types of
security threat are commonly called as the insider threats.
2.c The Communications
The distinct communications that occur within the Webb’s Stores and the IaaS
infrastructure has the tendency to attract several security threats. They are as follows:
i) Data Breaching: This is one of the most significant security threats that occur when
data is migrated (Xiao, Song & Chen, 2013). It occurs when Webb’s Stores and IaaS will
communicate with each other.
ii) Incompatible Database: The database should be compatible for avoiding the security
risks when Webb’s Stores and IaaS will communicate with each other.
3. Cloud of Backup and Removal of Records
3.a Risks with Backup of Data
i) Backup: Time to time back ups of data are highly recommended for all organizations.
However, there are certain vulnerable risks and threats, which take place during the back ups of
data. These types of threats are as follows:
Security: One of the most vulnerable threats while backing up of data is security.
Information often gets lost and cannot be recovered anymore.
Control Over Data: When the backup of data is done, it is completed by the provider of
cloud (Whaiduzzaman et al., 2014). He has the control and complete access of the confidential
data and can easily intercept it.
ii) Storing of Data: Cloud storage stores all the data. There are several risks and threats
that take place during data storing. The probable risks are as follows:
Security: One of the most vulnerable threats while storing any type of data is security.
Information often gets lost and cannot be recovered anymore.
Lack of Standardization: The cloud vendor always fails to follow the normative series of
rules for the support of the business. Webb’s Stores should select their cloud vendors carefully
and wisely (Tao et al., 2014).
iii) Data Retrieval: There are several risks and threats that take place during data
retrieval. They are as follows:
Snooping: The hackers sneaks into the data while it is retrieved from the cloud. He can
even intercept the data and this is absolutely vulnerable.
Leakage of Data: Data is often leaked in the cloud while it is retrieved from the cloud.
This has caused many infamous cases all over the world.
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3.b Cloud Backup in DR Plans
The strategy for all types of back up and recovery of data is known as cloud DR plan. This
plan is mainly used for keeping and storing all the confidential records (Dinh et al., 2013). This is
mainly done for security issues. Cloud backup does the most significant job. Webb’s stores
should select DR plans for their business as it will remove the complexities of the process of
migration of data. The single transfer of data is not required in this case. Only the database or
the storage is transferred. All the data will be transferred with that storage (Rittinghouse &
Ransome, 2016). The main advantage that will be obtained by Webb’s stores is that there will
be a copy of all the confidential data, which is sent by any public network to the offsite server.
The main advantage of back up and restore strategy is the simplified backup technique
of data. The entire database system will be modified with this simple strategy in Webb’s Stores
(Rahimi et al., 2014). The second important advantage of this technique is that even if there is
chance of losing any data during the migration, this particular strategy will recover the lost data
quickly and efficiently. Therefore, it can be claimed that this strategy would be helpful for the
organization.
4. Protection of Access and Recommendations
4.a IaaS Infrastructure
Access of any confidential thing is not given to everyone. The Infrastructure as a Service
instance cannot be allowed to access by everyone (Malawski et al., 2015). This access should be
protected. The most important method is mentioned below:
Physical Access in Cloud Infrastructure: Hacker or a person with wrong intentions often
has physical access to the cloud infrastructure (Wei et al., 2014). There should be a strict
restriction for accessing the infrastructure.
4.b MS SQL Server 2012 R2 Cloud Instance
All types of accesses in the MS SQL Server 2012 R2 can be prevented by a significant
approach.
Access to Operating System: They should keep an eye on the operating system access
(Botta et al., 2016). They should not allow any unauthorized users to access the operating
system of the organization.
4.c Cloud Network Infrastructure
Webb’s Stores can prevent the overall access to the infrastructure of cloud network by
two methods. They are as follows:
i) External and Internal Threats: They should be careful from this type of threats
(Hashizume et al., 2013).
ii) Server Monitoring: They should regularly monitor the server to avoid multiple
access .
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4.d Cloud Backup and Restore Infrastructure
The cloud backup and restore infrastructure can be protected by two methods. They are
as follows:
i) Encryption: This is the most basic and simple way of securing access to data and
information in any system (Fernando, Loke & Rahayu, 2013). Encryption is the process of
encoding a confidential message or text into a cipher text in such a way that only the receiver
would be able to access that message or text. It is extremely popular for any organization for
securing their information.
ii) Passwords: The easiest approach of securing any information, data and access is to
keep passwords for that particular aspect. They secure the access and the hacker is unable to
access it (Almorsy, Grundy & Muller, 2016). Moreover, passwords should also be changed
periodically.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that one of the most popular
and recognized retailer is Webb’s stores. Based in Australia, this particular organization sells all
sorts of food items. They also sell some of the important specialty stuffs. There are two major
data centers of this organization. One is in Sydney and the other one is in Melbourne. These
two data centers do the main task of sending and receiving data. However, this organization
also has some of their data centers regionally. These regional data centers are present in
Auckland, Bathurst, Wagga, Brisbane and Port Macquarie. In recent days, Webb’s Stores have
decided to shift their entire database to Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS instance in cloud.
Previously, their database was in MS SQL Server 2012 R2. The organizational bodies of Webb’s
Stores have taken a decision of undertaking various tools and techniques of cloud computing in
their business. Cloud computing is the safest procedure of transferring bulk amount of data
within lowest time. This particular decision has raised many problems like data management
and complexities of the operational and application software. Due to these problems, the data
management has become a major problem for the company. The regional data center in
Auckland has a traditional infrastructure and due to this reason, Webb’s Stores have decided to
close down the entire infrastructure. Instead of closing the data center, they could have easily
upgraded the infrastructure. A workshop for Security and Risk is scheduled to organize for all
the probable security risks, vulnerabilties access, and the probable controlling measures. The
report also provides a perfect description of the Webb’s Stores case study. Moreover, the
report also describes the details of migrating all types of data from MS SQL Server to the cloud
instance of IaaS. The type of cloud security deployed is also mentioned here. The above report
also describes about the advantages and disadvantages of cloud security deployment. The risks
and the ways to control them are also mentioned here. Suitable recommendations are provided
in the report.
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References
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., & Müller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security
problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.
Arora, R., Parashar, A., & Transforming, C. C. I. (2013). Secure user data in cloud computing
using encryption algorithms. International journal of engineering research and
applications, 3(4), 1922-1926.
Avram, M. G. (2014). Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an
enterprise perspective. Procedia Technology, 12, 529-534.
Botta, A., De Donato, W., Persico, V., & Pescapé, A. (2016). Integration of cloud computing and
internet of things: a survey. Future Generation Computer Systems, 56, 684-700.
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.
Garg, S. K., Versteeg, S., & Buyya, R. (2013). A framework for ranking of cloud computing
services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(4), 1012-1023.
Hashem, I. A. T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N. B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A., & Khan, S. U. (2015). The rise of
“big data” on cloud computing: Review and open research issues. Information
Systems, 47, 98-115.
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.
Li, M., Yu, S., Zheng, Y., Ren, K., & Lou, W. (2013). Scalable and secure sharing of personal
health records in cloud computing using attribute-based encryption. IEEE transactions
on parallel and distributed systems, 24(1), 131-143.
Malawski, M., Juve, G., Deelman, E., & Nabrzyski, J. (2015). Algorithms for cost-and deadline-
constrained provisioning for scientific workflow ensembles in IaaS clouds. Future
Generation Computer Systems, 48, 1-18.
Rahimi, M. R., Ren, J., Liu, C. H., Vasilakos, A. V., & Venkatasubramanian, N. (2014). Mobile
cloud computing: A survey, state of art and future directions. Mobile Networks and
Applications, 19(2), 133-143.
Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation, management,
and security. CRC press.
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Sanaei, Z., Abolfazli, S., Gani, A., & Buyya, R. (2014). Heterogeneity in mobile cloud computing:
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Tao, F., Cheng, Y., Da Xu, L., Zhang, L., & Li, B. H. (2014). CCIoT-CMfg: cloud computing and
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Industrial Informatics, 10(2), 1435-1442.
Wei, L., Zhu, H., Cao, Z., Dong, X., Jia, W., Chen, Y., & Vasilakos, A. V. (2014). Security and
privacy for storage and computation in cloud computing. Information Sciences, 258,
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Whaiduzzaman, M., Sookhak, M., Gani, A., & Buyya, R. (2014). A survey on vehicular cloud
computing. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 40, 325-344.
Xiao, Z., Song, W., & Chen, Q. (2013). Dynamic resource allocation using virtual machines for
cloud computing environment. IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed
systems, 24(6), 1107-1117.
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