Cloud Computing: Implementation and Architecture for Regional Gardens

This article discusses the implementation and architecture of cloud computing for Regional Gardens. It covers the differences between IaaS and PaaS, their advantages and disadvantages, and the recommended cloud approach for Regional Gardens. The article also covers the implementation of office automation services and the ad hoc and structured approaches.

Running head: CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud Computing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

CLOUD COMPUTING
Table of Contents
Answer 1..............................................................................................................................2
Answer 2............................................................................................................................10
2.1. Ad hoc Approach....................................................................................................10
2.2. Structured Approach..............................................................................................10
Answer 3............................................................................................................................11
3.1. Differences between Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service..........11
3.1.1. Differences between IaaS and PaaS................................................................11
Answer 4............................................................................................................................13
4.1. The Differences among IaaS, PaaS and SaaS..........................................................13
4.2 Recommended Cloud Approach..............................................................................14
References.........................................................................................................................16
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Answer 1
The main concept of cloud computing along with the cloud architecture recommended
for Regional Gardens is represented below-
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This slide provides the outline of the topics that will be covered in the presentation.
Cloud computing will therefore help in providing an optimum solution to the existing problems
in the Regional Gardens. It helps in easier data storage and management of the data in the
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organization.
These are the main advantages of using cloud computing. The cloud services can be availed in a
subscription basis. Cloud computing is therefore a process of data storage in a network of
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remote servers hosted over internet.
The decision of using cloud in Regional Gardens is expected to simplify the existing business
processes of the organization. It will help in easier accessibility and data storage. The data can
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be accessed simply with the help of a web browser.
Infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service are main cloud
architectures that are widely used across the world. Regional Gardens will be choosing from
these three architectures. It is therefore necessary to evaluate which architecture will be
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appropriate for Regional Gardens to consider.
Infrastructure as a Service is a cloud architecture that provides an infrastructure to the
customers, enabling them to host cloud applications over internet. This service is extremely
secure and quite flexible to implement.
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Platform as a service provides a secure platform for deployment of cloud services. It is
extremely user friendly and provides an option for the easier management of the different
cloud services. It is a very cost effective option for implementation of different cloud
applications.
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It is a ready to use cloud model that works on subscription basis. It is extremely user friendly,
however has many security issues. This architecture is therefore not recommended for Regional
Gardens.
Platform as a Service is chosen architecture for Regional Gardens as it will enable the
organization to use their existing data center. Furthermore, PaaS provides a very cost effective
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solution of using cloud in hosting different applications of the organization.
Easy back up and disaster recovery are the most significant advantages of Platform as a Service.
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Answer 2
Regional Gardens is planning to incorporate cloud computing in their daily operation
and the first step to that is providing office automation systems to the staffs. The office
automation system is very important in business operation as it enables an organization to
digitally store, create and manage the different records of the organization in a digital format.
With the increase in business opportunities for Regional Gardens, manual record keeping is a
huge problem. There are different vendors for providing office automation services that helps
in easier management of all the data and resources of an organization. The office automation
services include the data applications that are used in creation and editing of a particular
document. With the help of office automation services, medium sized organization such as
Regional Gardens can monitor and control the various project activities and operations
associated with the organization. The heart of an office automation system is mainly the local
area network of the organization. The different application of the office automation system
remains connected with this LAN and therefore all the applications can be controlled in a
central manner. The two approaches of implementation of office automation services are ad
hoc approach and structured approach (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2016). The ad hoc and
structure approach are discussed in the following sections.
2.1. Ad hoc Approach
This is one of the proposed approaches of office automation for Regional Gardens. The
data will be stored in cloud and therefore the implementation process will be easier. Since
Regional Gardens is planning to move to a cloud platform, it is recommended that the office
automation will be based on cloud as well. The ad hoc approach is recommended as it has
certain advantages. The advantages of implementation of office automation with an ad hoc
approach are as follows-
1. It is easy to implement and enables complex workflow in lesser execution time.
2. The deployment of office automation in this approach is fast and easy.
2.2. Structured Approach
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Structured approach is another proposed approach of providing office automation in
Regional Gardens. A planned process is followed in implementation of cloud in this approach.
The advantages of structured approach are as follows-
1. It is very easy to implement as it follows a planned approach
2. It is less complex (Fernando, Loke & Rahayu, 2013)
However, implementation time for providing office automation is much higher in
structured approach in comparison to planned approach.
Therefore it is suggested for Regional Gardens to use ad hoc approach in
implementation of office automation services.
Answer 3
3.1. Differences between Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service
Regional Gardens is yet to decide about their migration of their web infrastructure in
cloud. Regional Gardens has two options which are IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service or PaaS
which are Platform as s Service (Dinh et al., 2013). A clear distinction of these two approaches is
need to be made in order to understand which platform or cloud architecture should Regional
Gardnes consider for the migration of its web infrastructure.
3.1.1. Differences between IaaS and PaaS
The major differences between IaaS and Paas considering their factor, characteristics
and different issues associated with them are as follows-
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Cloud Service Characteristics
Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS
IaaS is a computational service that provides
complete infrastructure components of networks
and servers for deployment of the cloud. IaaS
therefore enables implementation of cloud in a
virtualized environment.
Since IaaS provides a virtualized environment for
deploying cloud applications, implementation of
cloud in this platform is quite easier.
Service providers maintains the data center,
however, it is the responsibility of the client to
maintain the associated software (Serrano,
Gallardo & Hernantes, 2015).
This service is therefore mainly used by the clients
whose has lack of infrastructure space.
The data and resources stored over IaaS can be
easily controlled even in public cloud environment.
Platform as a Service or PaaS
As the name suggest, this cloud architecture
provides a platform for deployment and execution
of cloud applications.
One of the major advantages of PaaS is that, it
enables more than one user to access the system
concurrently.
The service provider of PaaS takes the charge of
the CPU, memory usage, database and the security
needs.
Implementation of cloud applications is easier in
PaaS as no technical knowledge is required.
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The above table discusses the strikingly different characteristics of IaaS and PaaS.
However, there are certain disadvantages associated with both the approaches which are
discussed below (Jadeja & Modi, 2012).
Disadvantages of IaaS-
The main disadvantages of IaaS are as follows-
1. The customers need to go through the hassle of installing timely updates and the
backup.
2. It is the most expensive cloud service (Hossain, 2012)
Disadvantages of PaaS-
1. The security issue associated with the deployment of applications in PaaS is one of
the major disadvantages of this approach (Pahl, 2015).
2. The client has no control over the platform provided by the cloud vendor.
Since Regional Gardens is planning to move their web infrastructure in public cloud, it is
necessary to consider the associated security issues. Furthermore the company has an exisiting
data center in Bathrust. Therefore it is recommended for Regional Gardens to use platform as a
service for migrating its infrastructure.
Answer 4
4.1. The Differences among IaaS, PaaS and SaaS
The main differences between infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and
software as a service are discussed in the following table (Kavis, 2014)-
Characteristics Infrastructure as a
Service
Platform as a Service Software as a Service
Definition It provides a
infrastructure and
PaaS offers a platform
for deployment of the
It is a model cloud
service where
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virtualized cloud
platform in deployment
of the different cloud
application
cloud services customers are allowed
to use different cloud
resources on a
subscription basis (Rai,
Sahoo & Mehfuz, 2013)
Advantages Offers scalable and
flexible services that
make the process of
implementation of
cloud applications even
faster (Manvi & Shyam,
2014).
It is very easy to deploy
cloud applications in
PaaS platform (Malfara,
2013)
SaaS provides the most
cost effective cloud
solution
The customers can
enjoy the different
cloud applications
without a hassle of
update installation and
backup.
It is one of the most
cost effective cloud
solutions
Offers a secure platform
of data storage
It integrates different
applications in the
cloud platform (Kolb &
Wirtz,2014).
The speed of data
processing is quite fast.
Disadvantages It is the most costly
cloud service
There are certain
security issues
associated with the use
of PaaS (Hashizume et
al., 2013)
Extremely vulnerable to
attacks.
The customers are
responsible for backups
and VM management
Customers have no
control over the
platform as it works on
a subscription basis
with no back end
knowledge.
The service provider has
a control of the
customers’ data
4.2 Recommended Cloud Approach
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The table represented previously gives a clear idea about the services provided by IaaS,
PaaS and SaaS. Regional Garden as already deployed a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 instance for
its staffs and employees. While moving to the cloud, the organization will need a separate
infrastructure to host the application in cloud. Therefore it is recommended for Regional
Gardens to use Infrastructure as a Service platform for this case. Although the implementation
time of cloud application in IaaS would be more, it is expected to provide a secure service to the
employees of Regional Gardens. The advantages of implementation of the application in public
cloud environment are as follows –
1. It provides an entire infrastructure and virtualized computing environment to the
clients for the deployment of different applications.
2. Regional Gardens will not have to maintain a separate data center or storage place in
IaaS.
3. It provides an extremely secure service to the customers.
4. Management of the data and resources over cloud will be easier.
5. Provides easier option of back up and disaster recovery.
6. The services provided are quite flexible and scalable.
7. IaaS cloud vendors provides the option of pay as you go.
These are the major advantages of implementation of cloud application in IaaS cloud
architecture However, there are certain disadvantages associated with IaaS which are as follow
s (Almorsy, Grundy & Müller, 2016) -
1. The cost of implementation of IaaS is very high.
2. The customers have to maintain their own backup and install updates in regular basis.
3. The maintenance cost is high as well.
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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.
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.
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.
Hossain, S. (2012). Infrastructure as a Service. Cloud Computing Service and Deployment
Models: Layers and Management, 26-49.
Jadeja, Y., & Modi, K. (2012, March). Cloud computing-concepts, architecture and challenges.
In Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies (ICCEET), 2012 International
Conference on (pp. 877-880). IEEE.
Kavis, M. J. (2014). Architecting the cloud: design decisions for cloud computing service models
(SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS). John Wiley & Sons.
Kolb, S., & Wirtz, G. (2014, April). Towards application portability in platform as a service.
In Service Oriented System Engineering (SOSE), 2014 IEEE 8th International Symposium
on (pp. 218-229). IEEE.
Malfara, D. (2013). Platform as a Service. working paper ACC 626, University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Canada, 3 July.
Manvi, S. S., & Shyam, G. K. (2014). Resource management for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
in cloud computing: A survey. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 41, 424-
440.
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Pahl, C. (2015). Containerization and the paas cloud. IEEE Cloud Computing, 2(3), 24-31.
Rai, R., Sahoo, G., & Mehfuz, S. (2013). Securing software as a service model of cloud
computing: Issues and solutions. arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.2426.
Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation, management,
and security. CRC press.
Serrano, N., Gallardo, G., & Hernantes, J. (2015). Infrastructure as a service and cloud
technologies. IEEE Software, 32(2), 30-36.
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