ICT Cloud: Reducing Risks, Improving Agility, and Security in Cloud Computing

This document provides an overview of the benefits of cloud computing in the ICT industry, including reducing risks, improving agility, and enhancing security. It discusses the differences between public and private cloud services and explores the controls that can be implemented for data security. The document also explains the selection criteria for choosing a cloud platform and introduces the concept of multi-tenancy in the context of ICT.

Running head: ICT CLOUD
ICT CLOUD
Name of Student
Name of University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................2
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................3
Task 4.........................................................................................................................................6
Task 8.........................................................................................................................................9
Task 9.......................................................................................................................................11
Task 10.....................................................................................................................................14
References................................................................................................................................18

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Task 1
a. Reducing the risks of IT usage: banks had been under influences of the service
providers of information technology from a certain technical direction, system
architecture up to the application software that results to high amount of expenditures
along with the lock-in of the IT systems up to a certain proprietary technology of a
vendor (Radu, 2016). with eth usage of cloud computing the bank would be allowed
to obtain a certain infrastructure, platform of development as well as application
software with the help of procurement of numerous service area, besides this, the
bank would not need to make a huge investment, and do not have to undergo a certain
long as well as risky process (Andriyanto, Doss & Pan, 2018). The bank would not
have to be limited to some manufacturers of hardware products as well as solution,
this s due to the compatibility necessities.
Improving the agility of IT: according to the traditional mode, the bank would have to
deploy a certain new application, they would have to carry out a certain series of
processes that include selection of equipment’s, purchasing as well as installation along
with configuration that might take few weeks or months (Lytvynova & Melnyk, 2018).
Cloud computing has certain features that makes it easy for banks to use, rapid
development along with manageability, they can hugely accelerate the arrangement as
well as expansion management of various applications within the field of banking. If the
bank needs surplus computing power for meeting temporary spikes, they would be able to
get them with the use of cloud (Shyshkina, 2018). The cloud computing solution would
make the infrastructure maintenance along with the usage of information systems to the
highest level of explanation.

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b. Difference between the public and private cloud services: according to various
researchers, the public cloud can be defined as one that a certain service provider
provides various resources for computing to people (Radu, 2017). The public cloud
services could be provided in return of zero charge or with the help of pricing model
like pay-as-you-go. The supplier usually owns as well as runs infrastructure and lets
the access to cloud with the help of internet (Bhatiasevi & Naglis, 2016). Public cloud
is offered with the help of providers who are famous or well-known like Amazon
AWS, Microsoft and Google.
The private cloud is one which can be accessed by a certain enterprise that is also called
as client. This sort of cloud might be presented by the provider of the service or by the
consumer itself. It could also be achieved by customer or a certain third party provider
(Adamczewski, 2016). Consumer of a particular private cloud usually is a huge institute
because it requires to build as well as be able to manage the cloud. A certain cloud also needs
the customer to mention the security threats for ensuring that it cannot be accessed by any
unauthorized user who does not belong to the client organization.
Task 2
a. Few organizations have provided a private cloud architecture that is full-fledged. one
of the commercial offering include Enomaly, besides this Eucalyptus is considered as
a source variant that is open and had received much popularity (Kasemsap, 2015).
Few things are to be kept in mind at the time of developing a certain private cloud
architecture. The aspects that are required for implementing private cloud as a
solution architect to a probable consumer are as follows
Server architecture: this particular technology would run on virtualization that is based on
Hypervisor. The servers would require Intel VT or features of AMP Pacifica for running as a

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section of private cloud architecture (Sabi, Uzoka & Langmia, 2016). Hence it is necessary
that the organization rules out the servers that are old and had been used since a long time.
Selecting cloud middleware: this is one of the best options for private cloud architecture
which is supported by the virtualization platform that is present in the current server. The
XEN user would have the options to select between the Enomaly and the Ubuntu Enterprise
Cloud. If the organization has been accustomed to VMware, then they must choose VMware
based private cloud architecture because it would be a better option for the organization (Al-
Ruithe, Benkhelifa & Hameed, 2017). At this time, the Microsoft Hyper-V users might have
to pause. This is because Microsoft had announced the launch of Dynamic Datacentre Toolkit
which would allow the users to build private cloud architectures on the basis of Hyper- V
(Iannone, Bellagamba & Bracco, 2016). It is very important for the organization to assess if
they need a hybrid cloud and if their cloud platform would support the architecture of public
cloud. Eucalyptus that usually operates within the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud includes Amazon
EC2 compliant, it also has the ability to connect with EC2 for forming a hybrid cloud (Al-
Sharafi, Arshah & Abu-Shanab, 2017). It could be speculated that Dynamic Datacentre
Toolkit of Microsoft would be able to integrate properly along with the Microsoft Azure.
b. Microsoft System Centre can be considered as a particular set of products that aim in
server management, these products also aim in helping the enterprise IT
administrators for managing the systems. Microsoft System Centre can be used for
monitoring as well as operating cloud, it helps organizations to realize regarding the
advantages which would be available with the Microsoft Cloud Platform with the help
of fast as well as unified management (Loukis, Kyriakou & Pazalos, 2017). This
features monitoring that is out of the box as well as uncommon monitoring,
provisioning, configuration, protection, self-service and automation, these factor

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would reduce the time to value the service area as well as applications that are served
with the help of cloud.
The basic elements of Systems Centre Management Platform would help in capturing as
well as gathering information about the structure, strategies, and procedures as well as best
practices for helping IT to build reliable as well as manageable systems and properly
automate numerous processes (Wamuyu, 2017). The core products in this particular group
include Systems Centre Configuration Manager which was formerly called Systems
Management Server, Systems Centre Operations Manager which was formerly known as
Microsoft Operations Manager (Peiris, Balachandran & Sharma, 2018). As per Microsoft
SCCM is responsible for assessing, deploying along with updating the servers, clients,
devices and computers across the physical, distributes, virtual as well as mobile
environments. SCOM can be stated as a particular end to end service management product
(Adelmeyer, Walterbusch & Biermanski, 2017). Some more products within this particular
group includes Systems Centre Data Protection Manager, Systems Centre Essentials, Systems
Centre Virtual Machines Manager and Systems Centre Capacity Planner.
The capabilities of Microsoft System Centre are as follows
1. This provides Windows Server as well as monitoring the workload: Assures health of
virtual, physical as well as cloud infrastructure with the help of console of operations
manager (Tsaih, Yen & Chang, 2015).
2. Built in topology as well as discovery of network: enables monitoring the health
regarding network devices as well as virtual networks.
3. Integration that is seamless in nature: this allows granular monitoring of the private
cloud infrastructure as well as resources (Shyshkina, 2018).

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4. Optimizes the storage performance: with the help of managing storage spaces of
Windows Server.
An overview of Systems Centre Suite Overview has been provided below
Component Function Description
Virtual Machine Manager Provision and Deploy Provision fabric, achieve as
well as deploy virtual
machines along with
deploying multi-tier
applications
Configuration Manager Configure Configuration, patching and
updating clients as well as
servers
Operations Manager Monitoring Monitoring physical, virtual
as well as cloud
infrastructure along with
workloads in real time.
System Centre Orchestrator Automating Automating management of
numerous tasks with the use
of graphical as well as
graphing along with

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scripting tools
System Centre Data
Protection Manager
Protecting Backing up private clouds,
physical machines, server
applications as well as
clients.
Systems Centre Service
Manager
Self service IT process management as
well as self-service.
Table 1: An overview of Systems Centre Suite Overview
Task 4
a. Various security problems when information is kept in the third-party datacentres.
The main security threat that is imposed to the data stored in third party datacentres
includes the access of data to unauthorized users (Von Faber & Behnsen, 2017). This
threat can be imposed by any members of the staffs or any external source who has
gained access to various servers and hence causes a certain outage in an unintentional
or malicious manner. Data has high chances to be a vital target of distributed denial
service attacks which aimed in disturbing as well as disabling necessary internet
services (Kaleem, Jain & Husain, 2017). Web servers had been at getting end of the
distributed denial attacks and attackers or hackers have been exploiting the
vulnerabilities of the web application for turning the servers into bots. These servers
are utilized for the purpose of attacking other websites (Choi, Lee & Kim, 2015). One
more threat that is imposed on the data saved in the third party data centres include
distributed denial of service attacks, these attacks are aimed in disabling as well as
disrupting the servers and get access to the data saved in them.
Controls that can be implemented in cloud security architecture are follows.

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Deterrent controls: this control had intended in reducing various attacks on a certain cloud
system. This is similar to a warning sign on a certain property or fence, these controls tend to
reduce the level of threat by informing various attackers that they would face consequences in
case they proceed.
Preventive controls: these controls tend to strengthen the entire system against numerous
incidents, this is done by minimizing the vulnerabilities (Nosenko, Shyshkina & Oleksiuk,
2018). Authentication of various users of cloud, would reduce the chance of attacks caused
by various unauthorized users, they are not allowed to access various cloud systems and are
more likely that the cloud users are identified in a positive manner.
Detective controls: these controls are usually intended for detecting as well as reacting
properly to certain incidents that take place. This control would signal the corrective or
preventive controls for addressing various threats (Ferri, Maffei & Mangia, 2017).
Monitoring of systems as well as network security along with intrusion detection are
employed for detecting attacks on the cloud systems besides the support provided to
communication infrastructure.
Corrective controls: these controls help in reducing various consequences of a certain
incident with the help of limiting the damage that is caused. They are effective during as well
as after the incidents.
Various requirements to limit data security include limit the access to data. The
organization should be able to determine the data required by a certain employee. They must
also ensure that they are provided with the data that they need. One more requirement
includes identification of sensitive data (Assante, Castro & Hamburg, 2016). The company
must have an idea of where the data is stored and must ensure that they have the proper data
and hence invest more resources for the purpose of saving the most crucial and sensitive data.

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b. The selection criteria that is needed for cloud in an organization include various
aspects. These aspects would be used for the purpose of judging the cloud platforms
and detect which ones would be more advantageous for an organization. I have
selected eight key areas which must be considered before selecting a certain cloud
platform, these areas include certifications as well as standards, technologies as well
as service roadmap, data security, governance of data along with policies of business,
dependencies of service and partnerships, contracts, SLAs and commercials,
consistency as well as performance, business health and enterprise profile and
migration support, vendor lock and exit planning (Domínguez-Mayo, García-García
& Escalona, 2015). Among these, the security of data is the most vital one. being a
security specialist, I would suggest an organization to opt for private cloud over
public cloud, this is because private cloud is owned by a certain company and no one
other than authorized people are usually allowed to make use of the private cloud, this
makes it more secured (Cordella & Tempini, 2015). The cloud is maintained as well
as managed by the enterprise itself. One more vital point that make public cloud
vulnerable to attacks include the fact that it could be used by any individual without
the necessity of authorization and the cloud is maintained as well as managed with the
help of service providers (Adamczewski, 2017). The major reason to use private cloud
over public cloud include the fact that in public cloud, the security cannot be
controlled. In public cloud, the providers would be allowed to access the data as well
as move it in case of any technical problem whereas private cloud could not be
accessed by the services of cloud computing for any sort of reasons (Kyriakou &
Loukis, 2017). The private cloud provides most level of control over the parameters
of security, this is because the efforts of security are carried out in-house or they are
outsources for the purpose of managing the security provider.

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Task 8
Multi-tenancy can be defined as a certain term that is used in the aspect of multi-
tenant application environment. This concept encompasses a particular multi-tenant database,
applications and tenant-aware tools. The database is meant to be providing support to a huge
number of distinct as well as separate sets of customers, these customers are called as tenants.
The tenants are supposed to share similar database schema (Nosenko, Shyshkina & Oleksiuk,
2018). Every set of tenant users access their own instance of a provided table unless the
provided table has been shared by other tenants. Being a certain enabling technology, the
multi-tenant database provides various advantages to a certain provider of SaaS with the help
of reducing the administration overhead of database and hence boost the aspect of resource
sharing (Ferri, Maffei & Mangia, 2017). The advantages of the Open Edge implementation is
that the tenant support is usually used in database. This removes the necessity of the fact that
the tenancy has to be managed with the help of a certain application. From the perspective of
information technology, multi-tenancy has two aspects, these aspects include internal and
external. In the internal aspect, a certain organization treats its departments in the form of
numerous tenants. This aspect demands a certain logical separation of infrastructure as well
as application along with sharing the physical infrastructure (Domínguez-Mayo, García-
García & Escalona, 2015). The external aspects deals with a service provider’s environment
where every tenant is treated as another organization. The financial company needs an
infrastructure that is dedicated whereas a certain retail company can share the infrastructure
with many more organizations.
The expectations of customers of a multi-tenant cloud are as follows
1. Cost efficient: the platform of multi-tenant allows the resource sharing, databases
along with the application, the investment made is reduced in its long run (Kaleem,
Jain & Husain, 2017). When comparing with the single tenant SaaS, the investment

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made are lowed because the overall costs are shared by numerous tenants who have
been sharing the application.
Figure 1: Expecting the decrease in investment cost in long run
(Source: Tsaih, Yen & Chang, 2015)
2. Scalable and manageable: the numerous elements in technology stack have been
shared as well as enjoyed the economies of the scale, the SaaS architecture is
expected to offer speed that is optimum in nature along with proper reliability and
efficiency.
3. Secure and isolated: it is expected to allow every tenant to utilize the application
without the requirement of altering the underlying code. The maintenance costs that
are usually required for the updates are expected to be shared among all the tenants
because they make use of the codes from the similar pool.

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Figure 2: Expedient updates, maintenance as well as upgrades
(Source: Loukis, Kyriakou & Pazalos, 2017)
Task 9
Various properties of Service Template that needs configuration include automation
of the service template, its file structure and creating the resource from various GCP servers.
Methodologies to configure them for multi-level business
Configuring the file structure: the configuration file must be printed in a YAML
format, the structure that must be followed while structuring the file in order to configure
them for multi-level business is as follows
imports:
- path: path/to/template.jinja
name: my-template
- path: path/to/another/template.py
resources:
- name: NAME_OF_RESOURCE

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type: TYPE_OF_RESOURCE
properties:
property-a: value
property-b: value
...
property-z: value
- name: NAME_OF_RESOURCE
type: TYPE_OF_RESOURCE
properties:
property-a: value
property-b: value
...
property-z: value
The section of resources contains a list of various resources which make up the deployment.
The resources can be of base type that is managed by Google like Computer Engine VM
Instance, a particular imported template, a type provider and composite template (Iannone,
Bellagamba & Bracco, 2017). Some more optional sections can also be used like metadata
and output sections. The configuration section should declare the resources part.
Creating resources from GCP servers
The configuration file could create various resources from numerous GCP servers.
Such as the below provided configuration file creates various resources from the Compute
Engine as well as BigQuery
# Copyright 2016 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

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# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.
resources:
- name: vm-created-by-deployment-manager
type: compute.v1.instance
properties:
zone: us-central1-a
machineType: zones/us-central1-a/machineTypes/n1-standard-1
disks:
- deviceName: boot
type: PERSISTENT
boot: true
autoDelete: true
initializeParams:
sourceImage: projects/debian-cloud/global/images/family/debian-
9
networkInterfaces:
- network: global/networks/default
- name: big-query-dataset

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type: bigquery.v2.dataset
properties:
datasetReference:
datasetId: example_ id
Service template automation
Service template automation can be carried out using numerous steps, these steps
include creating a service template definition, executing service-builder.slax script and hence
define the instance parameters that are service specific. The next step includes generating the
service interface, enabling the service interface on every device where the service is
necessary and then provision the systems with the help of invoking the service interface with
the utilization of NETCONF along with the supply of values of service parameters. After the
initial service template is created, the user executes the service-builder.slax scrip (Al-Ruithe,
Benkhelifa & Hameed, 2017). This particular script prompts the service name along with the
template group name and hence reads the configuration of the service template from the
configuration that has already been committed. NETCONF can be used for the purpose of
provisioning the service on remote MX Service device.
Task 10
The steps that are involved in the configuration of profiles are as follows
i. Application profile: the procedure of configuring application server profile is
mentioned below
Step 1: start the tool of profile management for creating a new environment for runtime. The
tool can be started by issuing the command for opening the WebSphere Customization
Toolbox from the command prompt, open the tool of Profile Management (Bhatiasevi &
Naglis, 2016). Make use of the Linux operating system menu which are used for starting

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programs that further start the WebSphere Customization Toolbox, then pen the tool of
Profile Management.
Step 2: create a new profile. The tool would display the Environment selection panel.
Step 3: select the Application server and then click Next, the panel for profile creation can be
seen.
Step 4: select the Advanced profile creation or the Typical profile creation and then click
Next. The Typical profile creation creates a certain profile which uses default settings of
configuration.
Step 5: go to the step available on administrative security.
Step 6: select a certain name for profile and a particular directory path for the profile
directory, click Next. Profile name could be any name with various restrictions (Andriyanto,
Doss & Pan, 2018). While naming the profile, certain characters cannot be used like spaces,
special characters which are not supportd in the name of a directory on the operating system
like * & ? and some more. Slashes (\) or (/) must not be used.
ii. SQL server profile: the menu path for configuring SQL server profile include Start,
All lists, Microsft SQL Server 2005, performance tools and SQL server profiler. The
below provided scree would appear

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Figure 3
Click on the connect option, the below provided screen would appear

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Figure 4
The two selection tabs would appear, general and event. The overall segment is separated into
four parts
Section 1: this section requires to identify the name of trace. This cannot be edited
Section 2: this is a section that includes template. User can select various type of template
based on their necessities. This is the structure for the trace. The defaulted template is
Standard template. Some more templates include T-SQL, T-SQL Duration, T-SQL Reply, T-
SQL SPs and some more. Template can be customized by users according to their necessities.
Section 3: this particular section is linked to the saving of the trace. The trace can be saved as
File or within the database. If the trace is saved in table it would connect to the server and ask
the user to the database where they aspire to secure the trace table data.

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Figure 5
Section 4: the trace can be stopped at a particular time with the help of checking the
checkbox of Enable the trace stop time and hence provide the time that the user wants to stop
the track. SQL server would stop the trace automatically at that particular time.

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