Dunedin Hospital Cloud Services: Heroku vs AWS Comparison Report

This report analyzes cloud service providers for Dunedin Hospital, focusing on Heroku and AWS. It explores the cloud delivery models, including SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, and assesses the advantages and disadvantages of each platform. Heroku's PaaS model is examined for its application-focused development and integration with popular tools like GitHub, along with its advantages of being open source, handling application runtime, and integrated data management. The report also points out Heroku's disadvantages such as limited support and CPU/RAM constraints. AWS is then introduced as a market leader offering a wide range of cloud services, including computing, storage, and security solutions, with advantages such as flexible programming options and enhanced security. However, AWS's multiple pricing models and potential for hidden costs are also discussed. A comparison table summarizes the two platforms across price, ownership, service type, and key features. The report concludes with a recommendation for AWS due to its scalability, reliability, performance, and security, which are crucial for Dunedin Hospital's cloud-based services, especially considering potential security risks and the need for application availability.

DUNEDIN HOSPITAL
Mobile-based Cloud Computing Services
NOVEMBER 12, 2017

Dunedin Hospital – Cloud Service Providers
Table of Contents
Cloud Service Providers for Dunedin Hospital......................................................................................2
Heroku...............................................................................................................................................2
List of Advantages.........................................................................................................................3
Set of Disadvantages.....................................................................................................................3
AWS Cloud Platform.........................................................................................................................4
List of Advantages.........................................................................................................................4
Set of Disadvantages.....................................................................................................................5
Heroku & AWS – Comparison..............................................................................................................5
Other Considerations.............................................................................................................................6
Recommendations and Conclusion........................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................8
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Dunedin Hospital – Cloud Service Providers
Cloud Service Providers for Dunedin Hospital
Heroku
There are different cloud delivery models that are present comprising of Software as a
Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Heroku is a cloud platform that provides the organization with the Platform as a Service
(PaaS) model of cloud for building, delivering, monitoring and scaling the cloud applications.
The cloud-based services for Dunedin Hospital can be designed using this platform. The
platform makes use of managed container system along with the use of integrated data
services and a very strong ecosystem for the deployment and execution of the applications.
The developer experience that is associated with Heroku is app-focused for the tasks of
delivery of the software and it also provides integration with the popular development
applications of the present times. The cloud services associated with the hospital will be
possible to be executed in the dynos which are smart containers based on the reliable
application runtime. The developers can deploy the codes in different languages, such as
Ruby, Python, Java, PHP and many more (Devcenter, 2017). The cloud services of the
hospital will be easy to execute as an outcome. The language and system stacks that are
associated with this cloud service provider are always monitored and evaluated with ease.
These are also upgraded regularly. Manual intervention will also not be required in this case.
The cloud platform provides the developers with an opportunity to focus on the delivery
services without worrying about the cloud infrastructure in this case. There are popular tools
like GitHub which can be used for the purpose of application integration. The dashboard
present in the cloud platform enhances the visibility and performance of the application.
There are many add-ons that are also present in this cloud platform which can be used by the
hospital as per their requirements (Capterra, 2017). These add-ons are the third party services
which can be immediately extended to enhance the functionality of the cloud services.
Operational experience that is provided by this cloud platform is one of its distinguishing
characteristics. The task of troubleshooting can be performed with ease to avoid the defects
and bugs associated with any of the cloud based service. In case of enhanced response or
throughput time or any other defect, there are alerts that can be launched for scaling up the
application and services. Auto-scaling is one of the unique features provided by this cloud
platform. All of these features will make sure that the needs and requirements of the Dunedin
hospital are met.
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Dunedin Hospital – Cloud Service Providers
List of Advantages
Heroku will provide many advantages to Dunedin Hospital which are as listed and described
below.
 The first and the foremost advantage is that the platform is open source in nature and
there is no cost that will be required to be spent in this regard.
 Application runtime and all of the associated operations will be completely handled
by Heroku and the hospital will not be required to bother about load balancing,
logging, configuration tasks etc.
 Scalability and flexibility are the two elements that will come handy with this
platform and it will provide the hospital with the ability to scale up and scale down
the application as per the requirements.
 PostgreSQL is integrated in this platform for the management and organization of the
data and information sets along with the execution of the data related operations
(Heroku, 2017).
 There is a built-in monitoring feature that is present in the platform which will allow
easy tracking and monitoring of the application metrics.
 There is also a feature of easy code and database roll back that is present which would
allow the data handling to be easily done.
 System and language stacks will be continually monitored in the application using
smart containers.
 There are also additional add-ons that come along with the platform, such as
MongoDB, Treasure Data and many more.
Set of Disadvantages
There are also a number of disadvantages that are associated with Heroku for Dunedin
Hospital cloud services.
 Live-support of the application is not very strong which may lead to certain
performance issues. In case of Dunedin hospital, performance is one of the prime
necessities of cloud based services because of the application and service domain that
are required to be provided.
 There is also no option to enhance the CPU performance or RAM storage in this case.
 There is a single point of failure that is present in this platform that can have a direct
impact on availability and continuity in case of a security attack.
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Dunedin Hospital – Cloud Service Providers
 There are limited security options that are available in this case. This may lead to the
execution of a number of security risks and attacks as a result.
AWS Cloud Platform
Amazon Web Service (AWS) is one of the most popular cloud service provider in the present
times. It is a market giant owing to the excellent services and customer support that is
provides.
There are a broad range of cloud services that are provided by AWS. These services and
products that are provided by AWS include computing services, storage and database
solutions, analytical tools and application, networking services, mobile solutions, developer
tools, management applications, IoT applications, security solutions along with enterprise
applications. The services that are offered by AWS will allow the hospital to operate the
cloud services in a faster manner at lower costs with enhanced scalability. The cloud provider
is trusted by many of the large market giants and a number of other organizations in the
market owing to its features and benefits. There are a large number workloads that are made
enabled with AWS that comprise of web and mobile-based applications, data warehousing
applications and many more. AWS Management Console is present with all the cloud-based
services provided by the cloud platform that keeps track of all the resources that are involved.
It provides a simple interface for the execution of cloud based tasks and activities (Awsstatic,
2017). The AWS cloud services can be managed by making use of the AWS Command Line
Interface (CLI). It is a unified tool for easier management of the tasks. Multiple tasks and
activities can be easily handled by using the command line and automated scripts as well. It
is just a matter of seconds that are required for the execution of cloud services with the aid of
AWS. There are web service APIs that are involved which make it easier and automatic to
scale up or scale down the services and application. There is a complete control of the
services as well as the instances that are involved. There is root access that is provided in this
case that allows easier interaction and communication. The data management along with
rebooting tasks can also be executed with much ease (Varia & Mathew, 2014).
There are several advantages that will be offered by AWS to Dunedin Hospital. Also, there
are a few points that shall be addressed carefully.
List of Advantages
 Existing and new SaaS application can be easy designed and used with the aid of
AWS services. There is management console and high quality documentation that is
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Dunedin Hospital – Cloud Service Providers
available for the purpose. This will allow the hospital to easily execute the health
services and applications.
 The customer base of AWS comprises of millions of customers and the customer
feedback and rating is also positive. As a result, the services that are offered can be
trusted to be reliable in nature.
 There is flexible option provided to select the programming language, desired
operating system, database, web application platform and likewise. The application
can therefore be designed as per the specification of Dunedin Hospital (Aws, 2017).
 There are enhanced security options that are provided and included by AWS. This
makes sure that the frequency of the security risks and attacks is very low.
 There are different options that are provided in terms of simple mobile backend,
serverless backend for mobile applications, secure enterprise applications and
likewise.
Set of Disadvantages
There are a few disadvantages that are associated with AWS services in association with
Dunedin Hospital.
 There are multiple pricing models that are associated with AWS that vary on the basis
of the type of services that are used. In this case, there may be a few hidden costs that
may come up.
 Enterprise-grade support does not come by default. It needs to be added as an
additional utility. This may scale up the costs associated with the cloud services.
 There have been a few high profile outages in the past. This may bring down the
customer engagement and satisfaction.
Heroku & AWS – Comparison
The primary cloud based services that will be provided by Dunedin Hospital with the aid of
any of the two cloud platforms with include health monitoring services, information
management, diagnosis and treatment decision making and many more. The table that has
been depicted below provides a comparison between the two platforms on the basis of
different parameters. It will make it easier to decide upon the correct choice for the cloud
platform to be selected for the hospital.
Parameter Heroku AWS
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Dunedin Hospital – Cloud Service Providers
Price The cloud platform is open
source in nature
There is an average of USD
28 that is necessary to be
spent on the service.
Owner Salesforce is the owner and
provider of these services
Amazon is the provider and
owner of these services
Service Type PaaS IaaS, PaaS
Key Features  The application
runtime is
completely
manageable in this
case
 Horizontal &
Vertical Scaling
 GitHub Integration
along with the
integration of other
popular applications
and tools.
 On-board app
monitoring is
enabled with this
cloud provider.
 Database roll-back
 Adaptive load
balancing is one of
the prime features
that is provided by
this cloud provider.
 There are a lot many
deployment and
development options
that are associated
with this cloud
provider.
 Automatic scaling
 Quick restart of app
functions
 Full control over
application
Other Considerations
Cloud based services and applications are often exposed to security risks and attacks. With
the combination of cloud technologies and mobile technologies, the number and types of such
risks further increase.
There can be numerous security risks that may take place, such as man in the middle attacks,
information breaching and leakage, denial of service attacks, phishing attacks, eavesdropping
attacks, malware attacks etc. These attacks can have threat agents as mobile devices,
networks, users, databases and many more (Malik & Chaturvedi, 2013). The impact of these
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Dunedin Hospital – Cloud Service Providers
attacks can be extremely adverse on the information confidentiality, privacy, integrity and
availability.
Dunedin Hospital will need the cloud services for providing health services to the patients
and to assist the medical team in the diagnosis and treatment procedures. In case of exposure
of this information to the unauthorized entities, the impact can be extremely severe. Also,
unavailability of the application will also have serious impacts (Shahzad & Hussain, 2013).
Recommendations and Conclusion
The cloud technologies that have been suggested above have their own set of advantages and
disadvantages. However, the one that is recommended for Dunedin Hospital is AWS cloud
services. It is because of the reason that the cloud based services of Dunedin Hospital will
have a lot many users. It would also be necessary to make sure that the availability of the
application is never compromised. The occurrence of security risks and attacks in the
application may have legal obligations as well. AWS mobile offers the qualities of
scalability, reliability, performance, availability and security. The application cost can be
easily managed by the hospital owners.
Security is one of the primary points of concern for the cloud-based services. In case of
Dunedin hospital, the executives must make sure that the application security is never
compromised. In order to do so, it would be essential to follow an amalgamation of technical,
physical and administrative security controls (Ahuja & Zambrano, 2016). Network security
shall also be enhanced with the use of anti-denial tools, anti-malware tools and network based
intrusion detection systems.
Dunedin hospital cloud based services shall also be marketed and promoted adequately so
that the users come to know about the new initiative taken up by the hospital owners. Social
media platforms shall be used for this purpose so that more number of users get to known
about the application, launch date, set of features and specifications.
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Dunedin Hospital – Cloud Service Providers
References
Ahuja, S., & Zambrano, J. (2016). Mobile Cloud Computing: Offloading Mobile Processing
to the Cloud. Computer And Information Science, 9(1), 90.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/cis.v9n1p90
Aws. (2017). AWS Mobile – The Fastest Way to Build Mobile Apps. Amazon Web
Services, Inc.. Retrieved 12 November 2017, from https://aws.amazon.com/mobile/
Awsstatic. (2017). Overview of Amazon Web Services. D0.awsstatic.com. Retrieved 12
November 2017, from https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-overview.pdf
Capterra. (2017). Heroku Reviews and Pricing - 2017. Capterra.com. Retrieved 12 November
2017, from https://www.capterra.com/p/158191/Heroku/
Devcenter. (2017). How Heroku Works | Heroku Dev Center. Devcenter.heroku.com.
Retrieved 12 November 2017, from https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/how-heroku-
works
Heroku. (2017). The Heroku Platform as a Service & Data Services | Heroku. Heroku.com.
Retrieved 12 November 2017, from https://www.heroku.com/platform
Malik, S., & Chaturvedi, M. (2013). Privacy and Security in Mobile Cloud Computing:
Review. International Journal Of Computer Applications, 80(11), 20-26.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5120/13906-1833
Shahzad, A., & Hussain, M. (2013). Security Issues and Challenges of Mobile Cloud
Computing. International Journal Of Grid And Distributed Computing, 6(6), 37-50.
http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijgdc.2013.6.6.04
Soares, M., Vrancken, J., & Verbraeck, A. (2011). User requirements modeling and analysis
of software-intensive systems. Journal Of Systems And Software, 84(2), 328-339.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2010.10.020
Varia, J., & Mathew, S. (2014). Overview of Amazon Web Services.
Media.amazonwebservices.com. Retrieved 12 November 2017, from
https://media.amazonwebservices.com/AWS_Overview.pdf
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