Integrated Professional Skills: Microsoft Cloud Computing Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of cloud computing, focusing on Microsoft's approach to cloud services. It begins with an introduction to professional skills and cloud computing, defining key terms like cloud computing and cloud storage, and exploring their benefits for businesses. The report then delves into different types of clouds, including public, private, community, and hybrid clouds, with an emphasis on the suitability of public cloud for Microsoft's current business model. It further examines the importance of data security and privacy, differentiating between the two and outlining measures to ensure data integrity, confidentiality, and availability within a cloud environment. The report concludes by summarizing the key aspects of cloud computing and data protection, highlighting the significance of these concepts for modern businesses. The report also uses figures to support the claims made.

INTEGRATED PROFESSIONAL SKILLS IN
DIGITAL AGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
L O 1 ...............................................................................................................................................3
Important terms and considerations related with internet...........................................................3
L O 2................................................................................................................................................5
Duties regarding privacy and security while using internet........................................................5
Privacy and security of company's cloud-.......................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Professional skills refers to the kills that are not taught during the studies to get a
particular degree but, they are valuable skills that are important to the career. For example-
mentoring, etc. Cloud computing refers to the services or facilities that an organisation provides
through a network called internet(Brand, 2017). One of the important characteristic of cloud
computing is that the services that are provided through cloud computing is managed by the firm
which is providing the services. The Report will be based on Microsoft Corporation. The firm
belongs to the industry of cloud computing, computer hardware and software, electronics items
etc. The products and services offered by Microsoft are LinkedIn, Windows etc. The Report will
outline the term cloud computing, cloud storage and the type of cloud that is suitable to present
business of the company. It will also describe how security is different with privacy and the steps
company will take to secure company's cloud.
MAIN BODY
L O 1
Important terms and considerations related with internet.
Internet refers to the system that integrates various protocols to connect various devices
across the world. The network links different companies, government networks, public and
private enterprises etc. by networking technologies.
Cloud computing-
It is one of the type of computing that is based on hardware and software resources and
local devices are not required for handling the applications of the firm. Cloud computing is very
useful for companies as well as for the users.
According to the author Chang, V. and Wills, (2016) Cloud computing is beneficial for users
because they does not have to manage the data. It is useful for companies also like Microsoft
because it allows the firm to share the resources as a result they get the advantage of economies
of scale. For example-Microsoft Azure is one of the cloud based service that Microsoft is
providing to the clients. Through cloud computing the company can easily develop and test,
manages the applications through data centers for the customers(Bursell, 2016). The facility
provided by the firm through cloud computing helps in managing the applications in effective

and efficient way. The cloud customers of Microsoft pays the amount to the company on the
basis of per day use of the model.
Cloud storage-
Cloud storage facility supports the applications of the firm to be easily uploaded over a
network. After uploading the data, the applications will manage the data and they can easily
access the data from any location.
As per the author Zhang, (2018) cloud storage provides various benefits to the users such as the
model helps in accessing the data from anywhere with the help of internet connection, it will
helps to secure the data such as protecting the data from hackers, unauthorized users etc. Cloud
storage also provides various benefits to Microsoft such as company does not have to invest
large amount of funds on storage equipments because it can easily store the data on the storage
provided by the providers that are offering cloud based services.
Cloud storage also has some considerations such as the firm is required to secure the data
through data encryption, storing the data on cloud will be expensive for the company. For
example- Microsoft is providing cloud storage facility to the clients through One Drive. It
provides the customers facility of storing documents, photos etc.
Types of clouds-
Depending upon the type of data that company or user wants to store on cloud, the level of
management and security required to secure the data there are different types of clouds such as-
Public cloud-
The term public cloud refers to the services and infrastructure which is available for use to all the
people. Public cloud offers various benefits such as there is no requirement of investing funds on
IT infrastructure, it helps to offer services to large number of users. It is a type of software as a
service(SAAS) that is provided to the users by the firms. This type of cloud is managed by cloud
service provider. Advantages of public cloud is that company does not have to buy software or
hardware, firm is not required to maintain the cloud etc. For example- Microsoft Azure is one of
the best example of public cloud.
Private cloud-
Private cloud comprise of various types of resources that are used by a particular business. In this
type of cloud, the hardware and software is maintained over private network. Private cloud are
mostly suitable for government agencies, medium size business etc.

Community cloud-
In case of community cloud, the infrastructure is provided to use by a particular community of
users from companies that are having similar mission, policies etc. Community cloud can be a
Hybrid cloud, Public cloud or Private cloud etc.
Hybrid cloud-
It is a combination of different types of cloud infrastructures such as public, private etc. It
provides various benefits to the firm such as it helps to improve the efficiency, flexibility etc.
Companies can use hybrid cloud for sharing information with the customers as well as it also
helps to store confidential information(Shi, W. and Dustdar, 2016).
Public cloud such as Microsoft Azure is most suitable for the current business of Microsoft
because it provides the advantage of durable storage of the data. It will provides a solution for
data recovery and data backup to the firm. It will help the clients of Microsoft to control their
budget of IT.
L O 2
Duties regarding privacy and security while using internet.
Security-
Security means protection. The term refers to the efforts that an organisation make for
protecting the important and confidential data from unauthorized users that does not have the
authority of using it. The example of unauthorized users are hackers. Companies should
implement strict protocols so that,any person outside the company will not be able to use the
information of the firm. Individual as well as companies should use strong passwords for
protecting the data.
Privacy-
Privacy refers to restricting the access of outsiders so that, they cannot see the activities that are
happening in the organization. It refers to the rights to company to protect the personal
information.
Difference between security and privacy -
The main aim of data security is to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of the
information. Whereas, the main objective behind data privacy is to protect the company's or

individual rights in respect of important information. To ensure the security of data, firms
develop protocols. For maintaining the data privacy of confidential information, companies uses
passwords.
Privacy and security of company's cloud-
A firm should take various steps to ensure the security and privacy of cloud. These are as
follows-
Data security and privacy are two important factors in Information Technology. They also plays
an important role in cloud technology that an organization is using to provide services to the
customers. Firm should make efforts to ensure the integrity of company's data. The transactions
of firm should have features like consistency, atomicity, durability and isolation etc. To ensure
data integrity of cloud, firm should develop techniques like digital signature etc. This will help to
improve confidentiality of data(Chang, V. and Wills, 2016).
Companies should develop and implement strategies related with controls to ensure the
confidentiality of data. Firms should use homo-graphic encryption, the implementation of this
technique will help the organisation to protect and secure the data over the cloud of company.
Companies can also use hybrid technique, this will help to secure the connection between
provider of cloud services and the users. Companies should ensure the data availability it means
Figure 1 Data security and privacy
Source : (Data security and privacy, 2017)

data of users can be recovered at the time of hard disk damage or failure of network that is
internet etc. Firms should also ensure the privacy of data over clouds by using Application
Interface Programming so that, data will not lost over the cloud. Organizations should develop
tools and techniques for monitoring the performance of cloud computing. And on the basis of
control and monitoring, the management of the firm should use new software to ensure security
and privacy of confidential information over the cloud.

CONCLUSION
The above Report has outlined that the technology of cloud computing helps an
organization to manage the data and resources in effective way. The Report has also described
that cloud storage helps the individual as well as firms to access the data from any location in the
world, there are various types of clouds that a firm can use on the basis of data. Public cloud is
most suitable for the current business of Microsoft. The Report has also explained the types of
controls and measures a company can use to ensure data security and privacy.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals-
Brand, A., CTERA Networks Ltd, 2017. Storage device and method thereof for integrating
network attached storage with cloud storage services. U.S. Patent 9,614,924.
Bursell, M., Citrix Systems Inc, 2016. Dynamic configuration in cloud computing environments.
U.S. Patent 9,251,115.
Chang, V. and Wills, G., 2016. A model to compare cloud and non-cloud storage of Big
Data. Future Generation Computer Systems. 57. pp.56-76.
Shi, W. and Dustdar, S., 2016. The promise of edge computing. Computer. 49(5). pp.78-81.
Zhang, D., 2018, October. Big data security and privacy protection. In 8th International
Conference on Management and Computer Science (ICMCS 2018). Atlantis Press.
Online-
Data security and privacy. 2017. [Online] Available Through :
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1155/2014/190903>