Virtualization and Cloud Computing: Critical Points, Migration to IaaS, SaaS or PaaS or IaaS

This article discusses the critical points to consider while implementing cloud computing in DTS Engineering. It covers the advantages and disadvantages of SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS and recommends IaaS for DTS. It also talks about the importance of data security and access management while storing files in the cloud. The article provides insights on the feasibility analysis and project plan required for implementing the new system.

Running head: VIRTUALIZATION AND CLOUD COMPUTING
Virtualization and Cloud Computing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Critical Points..................................................................................................................2
2. Migrating to IaaS infrastructure......................................................................................4
3. SaaS or PaaS or IaaS........................................................................................................6
3.1. Should DTS move to SaaS?......................................................................................6
3.2. The appropriate cloud service: IaaS.........................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................9

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1. Critical Points
DTS Engineering is a company that is planning to integrate cloud computing on their
daily operations. It is needed as the different group of staffs working in different places and
projects need an integrated platform in order to access and manage the critical information. The
daily working tools of online office automation services such as word, spreadsheet and emails
are needed to be integrated in their daily operations. This extensive task needs a proper
feasibility analysis and a proper project plan. In order to make this system work, every workers
of the company are needed to be provided with the adequate training for understanding the new
operations. Implementation of this new system indicates the changing operations of the
company. Therefore, if it is not done correctly, it may lead to a costly disruption and major cost
overruns to the business, which the company certainly cannot afford (Paraiso et al., 2012).
Another critical point is that is needed to be considered is selection of a proper system
that would help in automating the different operations of the company. Apart from this, having a
clear requirement and expectations about the system that will be delivered is another major
critical point that is to be considered in implementation of a new system.
The major aim of this project is to automate the inefficient and the ineffective processes.
It is therefore important to reexamine and streamlining the workflows within the company so as
to understand how the new system will work.
Another critical point that is needed to be considered apart from the cost of implementing
the system is the time that is allocated for implementing the work. The integration of a
completely new system in a very short time may yield negative results. Proper time should be

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allocated for analyzing, designing, planning, implementing and testing the situation. This will
further help in implementing the new system in an efficient way.
Another critical point that is needed to be considered while preparing advice for the
company, implementing proper training methods so the users can implement the new system
without any problem.
The online storage of files is a critical issue as it is important to maintain the
confidentiality of the files apart from ensuring the fact the files will be easily accessible by the
users even in remote locations (Wei et al., 2014).
The storage of important files in the cloud is an effective option; however, it is associated
with a number of risks, the major one being the loss of data or data theft. It is therefore essential
for the organization to choose a proper cloud environment, which would be beneficial for the
company. A hybrid cloud environment can be a solution as it ensures the proper security of the
files stored and can be easily accessed by the authenticated members. It is important for the
company to decide, which members can access the files. Only the authenticated members would
be given the permission to access and modify the data stored online (Yang & Jia, 2013).
Therefore, ensuring proper security of the information system on which the files would be stored
is essential to consider.

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2. Migrating to IaaS infrastructure
DTS engineering is considering to use IaaS service provider for hosting different
computing infrastructure. It is a better option in comparison to the locally hosted computing
infrastructure as IaaS provides virtualized resources over internet. It is a basic layer of the cloud-
computing model where the service provider provides the hardware, while the files and data is
managed by the client (Kavis, 2014). It will therefore be beneficial for the company to move to
the IaaS infrastructure since there is no risk about the loss or data theft.
The critical points that is needed to be considered while moving migrating all the
operations and services of DTS engineering from local hosted to IaaS includes, understanding
how it works and understanding the time and requirements for implementing this task.
Apart from the cost, it is essential for the company to analyze which cloud environment
would be suitable for data transfer. Choosing a right cloud environment is an important step on
the cloud migration part. All three cloud environment of public, private and hybrid cloud offers
all the benefits and therefore, it is important to choose a model that meets the purpose of
migration. Public cloud offers a highly scalable environment and is a cost effective solution as
well (Garrison, Kim & Wakefield, 2012).). However, the public cloud environment is not secure
due to the lack of control in its accessibility. Private cloud on the other hand provides a more on
premise environment; however, it is not a feasible solution for DTS engineering sure to its
limited access. The mixture of public and private cloud environment, which is hybrid cloud is
recommended for the company to adopt a hybrid cloud environment for migration (Hashizume et
al., 2013).

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Furthermore, it is important for the organization to evaluate the effort and the resources
needed for integrating the new cloud application. Data conversion is an important issue that a
company needs to consider before shifting all the files to the cloud based application. DTS
engineering must has a detailed understanding of the data requirements for the cloud-based
application (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2016). This is a critical point because in order to
implement the system in a proper way, proper data conversion and data transfer should be carried
out.
While implementing this cloud-based application, it is a challenge to ensure that all the
information security and proper control on access management is applied to the information-
system for eliminating the risk of misuse of the data stored in the application (Almorsy, Grundy
& Müller, 2016).
Migration of the data to a cloud environment should be in compliance with the internal
policies and external regulations and therefore, it is essential for the company to know how will
the data being stored in the cloud environment be secured (Galante & de Bona, 2012).
Implementation of the cloud in daily business operations helps in streamlining the
different processes within an organization. This is an intensive task and therefore several points
are to be considered before implementing the system. Reliability of the application and data is to
be ensured before implementation of cloud into the system (Arora, Parashar & Transforming,
2013).

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3. SaaS or PaaS or IaaS
3.1. Should DTS move to SaaS?
DTS is considering the use of PaaS or SaaS for providing services to the staffs. The
company uses Microsoft Exchange 2012 to provide email services to its employees. Now it is
important to evaluate whether DTS should move to a SaaS provider for updating the office
automation services that is used by the staffs. The disadvantages and advantages of migration to
a SaaS environment are discussed below-
The advantages of using SaaS (Software as a service) are as follows (Jadeja & Modi,
2012)-
1. SaaS generally offers a subscription based service and therefore, there are no up-front
license fees. This helps in implementing SaaS into business at a much lower cost. Furthermore,
the service provider manages the IT infrastructure of the running software, which helps in
reducing the cost of hardware and software maintenance.
2. The SaaS application is easier to implement as it is already installed and configured in
the cloud. This furthermore reduces the amount of delay in the deployment of this new system
3. All the software and hardware updates are taken care by the service provider and
therefore, the company has less responsibility in managing the system.
4. SaaS application can be easily accessed by the employees of the company, as an
employee can access the application with the help of a web browser and an internet. Almost all
the employees of the organization uses Smartphone and therefore, it would not be a problem in
remotely accessing the files from SaaS.

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5. Scalability is another major advantage of SaaS, as it offers flexible option of
subscription.
The disadvantages of SaaS are as follows-
1. One of the major problems with SaaS service is lack of control. The in house office
automation services provide a higher degree of control of the files and data. While in SaaS, every
clients need to have a latest version of the software and therefore, the client has no control on the
software.
2. The files and data of the DTS should be stored in a secured manner, which will allow
the authorized users the access to the stored data. Access management is a major issue in SaaS
and therefore it is important to evaluate whether this application will meet the requirement of
DTS (Zissis & Lekkas, 2012).
3. Internet plays a huge role in SaaS application and therefore, if the speed of the internet
is low, the whole application might run at much slower speed.
3.2. The appropriate cloud service: IaaS
DTS is planning to transfer its sharePoint 2013 to a cloud environment for increasing its
access. For that, IaaS cloud infrastructure would be appropriate to consider, as it offers a number
of benefits. The advantages of adapting to IaaS infrastructure are as follows-
1. IaaS or infrastructure as a service is a cost effective solution as it has considerably
lower infrastructure cost. The organization has no responsibility of ensuring the uptime and
maintenance of installed equipments or replacement of the equipments, which are not in use.
IaaS considerably economizes an organization, which no longer requires to buy extra capacity

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during the business spikes. The pay as you go model offered by IaaS offers a cost saving solution
to the organization by paying only for the capacity needed at a given point of time. It further
helps in avoiding a large amount of annual charge by reducing the utilization of the bandwidth.
2. The IaaS model provides scalability and flexibility in data management. The IaaS
model can be scaled up and down in response to the requirements of the employees. Apart from
this, the IaaS model have latest and most powerful storage that can be utilized in moving its
SharePoint 2013 instance in the cloud.
3. The IaaS provides optimal support for DR, BC and data availability. The disaster
Recovery or DR plan available in IaaS is cost effective. In case a disaster strikes, all the
employees of the company can access the same infrastructure that they have been using to access
files with the help of an internet connection (Chen & Zhao, 2012).
4. If this service is chosen, DTS will have a full control over the files and data that is
stored in the model. DTS will have a full control over the system that simplifies its integration
with the enterprise infrastructure.

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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.
Chen, D., & Zhao, H. (2012, March). Data security and privacy protection issues in cloud
computing. In Computer Science and Electronics Engineering (ICCSEE), 2012
International Conference on (Vol. 1, pp. 647-651). IEEE.
Galante, G., & de Bona, L. C. E. (2012, November). A survey on cloud computing elasticity.
In Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC), 2012 IEEE Fifth International Conference
on (pp. 263-270). IEEE.
Garrison, G., Kim, S., & Wakefield, R. L. (2012). Success factors for deploying cloud
computing. Communications of the ACM, 55(9), 62-68.
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.
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.

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Kavis, M. J. (2014). Architecting the cloud: design decisions for cloud computing service models
(SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS). John Wiley & Sons.
Paraiso, F., Haderer, N., Merle, P., Rouvoy, R., & Seinturier, L. (2012, June). A federated multi-
cloud PaaS infrastructure. In Cloud Computing (CLOUD), 2012 IEEE 5th International
Conference on (pp. 392-399). IEEE.
Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation, management,
and security. CRC press.
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, 371-
386.
Yang, K., & Jia, X. (2013). An efficient and secure dynamic auditing protocol for data storage in
cloud computing. IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems, 24(9), 1717-
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Zissis, D., & Lekkas, D. (2012). Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation
computer systems, 28(3), 583-592.