Regional Gardens: Cloud Computing, Automation, and Infrastructure

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of cloud computing solutions for Regional Gardens, focusing on infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS). It evaluates the suitability of each model for the organization's needs, including web infrastructure migration and office automation. The report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches, such as ad hoc and structured methods for office automation, and recommends specific cloud strategies based on Regional Gardens' existing infrastructure and requirements, particularly the use of Platform as a Service (PaaS) with its existing SharePoint 2010 instance.

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..............................................................................................11
2.3. Recommended Approach.......................................................................................11
Answer 3............................................................................................................................12
3.1. Differences between Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service..........12
Answer 4............................................................................................................................15
4.1. The Differences among IaaS, PaaS and SaaS..........................................................15
4.2 Recommended Cloud Approach..............................................................................16
References.........................................................................................................................18
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Answer 1
Slide Note: The following topics will be covered in the Presentation.
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Slide Note: Cloud computing can be described as a process of data storage in remote servers
hosted over internet. The different cloud services provides on demand delivery of the different
computing needs of the organization.
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Slide Note: With the help of cloud computing, Regional Gardens will be able to automate their
business processes as it offers the benefits of secure data storage, easy accessibility and
increase in the efficiency of the different business processes running within the organization.
Therefore it is recommended for regional Gardens to use integrate cloud in their daily
operations.
Slide Note: It is recommended for Regional Gardens to use Cloud Computing as it will help the
organization in redesigning their existing business processes. Furthermore, it is very easy to
deploy and provides a cost effective service as well.
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Slide Note: Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS, Platform as a Service or PaaS and Software as a
Service or SaaS are three important cloud architectures. Regional Gardens has to choose from
these three architectures, which one will be suitable for their organization. SaaS cannot be used
as it is extremely insecure.
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Slide Note: The infrastructure as a service is one of the most used cloud platform as it has a
number of advantages over the other two cloud architecture. It gives the customers instant
computing resources.
Slide Note: The platform as a service is mainly useful for the customers who have an
infrastructure that can be used in cloud computing process. It provides a platform for
deployment of the cloud applications.
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Slide Note: Although SaaS provides a cost effective solution it is extremely insecure as the
customers have no control over the data stored in the system. The service provider is mainly
responsible for the controlling and managing the data of the customers.
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Slide Note: Platform as a Service is recommended for Regional Gardens as Regional Garden only
needs the platform for deployment of cloud. PaaS will help Regional Gardens in developing a
customized cloud application for integration of all the business processes running within the
organization.
Slide Note: These are the major benefits of using PaaS in Regional Gardens. However, there are
certain security issues in deployment of cloud application in public cloud and in PaaS. These
security issues can be addressed by ensuring proper authorization and access control.
Therefore it is recommended for Regional Gardens to use PaaS.
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Answer 2
One of the significant and the foremost undertaking of Regional Gardens is to provide
office automation to their staffs. The office automation services refers to the varied computer
machineries that are mainly used to digitally create, store and managed all the information
associated with the office work. The manual record keeping update and modification of these
data is a major problem associated with the staffs of Regional Gardens and therefore the office
automation is proposed. There is different software that provides office automation services
that are changing the ways in which any business operate. The different types of function that
are mainly integrated by the office automation system includes the electronic publication of all
the vital data of the organization, promoting electronic communication among the staffs and
employees of the organization that will help in easier information flow as well. The electronic
collaboration is also promoted in office automation system including image processing and the
office management system. The entire office automation system is controlled by and remains
connected with the local area network of the organization (Rittinghouse & Ransome, J.2016).
The two approaches of office automation that is suggested for Regional Gardens are as follows-
2.1. Ad hoc Approach
This is the first proposed approach for Regional Gardens for implementation of office
automation services. The office automation services will be implemented in cloud platform for
easier management. Regional Gardens is planning to move to a cloud platform and therefore
the office automation will be implemented in cloud as well. The ad hoc approach is the
recommended approach of providing office automation system as it has a number of
advantages. The different advantages of implementation of office automation following the ad
hoc approach are as follows-
1. This implementation process is very easy and its application is easier as well. The
office automation work can be easily executed without any complexity following this approach.
2. The implementation process is fast and it requires very less time for its deployment.
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These two are major advantages associated with the ad hoc approach of
implementation of office automation. However, there are certain disadvantages of this
approach, the major one being its dependency on the tester for entire implementation process.
2.2. Structured Approach
The next recommended approach of implementation of office automation system is its
implementation following a structured approach. In this approach, the entire office automation
works will be dependent on the planned approach. The advantages of following this approach
of office automation are as follows-
1. This approach of office automation is user friendly and easy to implement.
2. This approach follows a structured process and therefore is much easier to
implement.
However, the major disadvantage of this approach is that, the process is quite slow and
often results in errors (Almorsy, Grundy & Müller, 2016).
2.3. Recommended Approach
Therefore it is recommended for Regional Gardens to use ad hoc approach for
implementation of office automation in Regional Gardens.
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Answer 3
Regional Gardens have two options of migrating their web infrastructure, which are
Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS and Platform as a Service of PaaS. The differences between
these two approaches are needed to be evaluated in order to understand which platform will
be appropriate for Regional gardens to consider. The Differences between Infrastructure as a
Service and Platform as a Service is discussed in the following section.
3.1. Differences between Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service
The main differences between IaaS and PaaS in terms issues, factors, characteristics and
costs are as follows-
The Cloud
Service
Characteristics Use Example
1.
Infrastructure
as a Service or
IaaS
IaaS can be defined as a process of
computation of the different
components of an infrastructure that
involves the presence of different
servers and networks. It provides a
platform for implementing cloud
services in virtualized environment
(Serrano, Gallardo & Hernantes, 2015).
Infrastructure as a
service is mainly used
when the infrastructure
space is unavailable
Windows
Azure, Rack
space are
leading service
providers of
IaaS.The resources can be
easily controlled and
therefore it is mainly
used to maintain control
over the resources.
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Implementation of cloud storage in
cloud platform is quite flexible and
therefore, it is one major advantage of
using Infrastructure as a Service.
Implementataion of cloud in IaaS is
easier since the hardware requirements
and the data center in mainly
maintained by the service provider while
the client only need to maintain the
software requirements.
2. Platform as a
Service or PaaS
It provides a platform to deploy, test or
host different cloud applications.
It is mainly used to
easily deploy a cloud
application.
Furthermore, the
process of deployment
of different application
is quite easy as no
technical knowledge is
required for its
deployment.
AWS Elastic,
Apache Stratos
are the leading
providers of
Platform as a
Service.
Platform as a service enables multiple
concurrent users in accessing the
system.
The service provider maintains the CPU,
memory usage, database, web server
and the security.
However, there are certain disadvantages associated with both IaaS and PaaS. The
disadvantages of IaaS and PaaS are as follows-
Disadvantages of IaaS-
The disadvantages of Infrastructure as a Service are as follows-
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1. It is very expensive to implement
2. Back up and updates are the responsibility of the client.
Disadvantages of PaaS-
The disadvantages of Platform as a Service are as follows-
1. There is certain security issues associated with the use of PaaS since the data can be accessed
by the service providers.
2. The client has no control over the platform which is another major disadvantage of PaaS.
Since Regional Gardens has an existing data center in Bathurst, it is recommended for
Regional Gardens to use IaaS for migrating their existing web infrastructure. The existing
infrastructure can therefore be put to use using this approach. The infrastructure as a service is
quit safe to implement and data will remain protected even in the public cloud environment.
The infra structure as a service can be customized according to the needs of the organization
and therefore it is recommended approach for Regional Gardens.
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Answer 4
Regional Gardens is further considering the use of PaaS or SaaS in order to provide
services to its employees. The existing SharePoint 2010 instance has been extremely
customized in order to suit the needs of Regional Gardens (Jadeja & Modi, 2012,). The following
section discusses major differences among Infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and
software as a service (SaaS).
4.1. The Differences among IaaS, PaaS and SaaS
The major differences among Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service and
Software as a Service are as follows (Kavis, 2014)–
Characteristics Infrastructure as a
Service
Platform as a Service Software as a Service
Definition IaaS provides an
infrastructure of
virtualized cloud
computing resources
over internet.
It provides a platform
for deploying, testing
and running the cloud
computing applications
It can be described as a
model cloud computing
that the users can make
use of on a subscription
basis (Rai, Sahoo &
Mehfuz, 2013).
Advantages 1. The services provided
by Infrastructure as a
service is scalable and
offers increased
flexibility (Hossain,
2012)
2. The data processing
speed is quite fast in
this approach
1. It provides a cost
effective solution and
incorporates less VM
management (Pahl,
2015)
2. It provides
improvised support for
integration of the
different application in
the cloud platform
provided by PaaS.
1. It provides an
extreme cost effective
solution and can be
implemented quite
easily.
2. The clients need not
manage any data
Disadvantages 1. The customers need 1. There are certain 1. It is extremely
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to take the charge of
the backups.
2. The customer has no
control over the
infrastructure or the
server (Manvi & Shyam,
2014).
security risks associated
with PaaS since the
service provider has an
access to the data of
the customers
(Hashizume et al.,
2013).
insecure.
2. Customers have no
control over the
software
Examples Amazon EC2, Azure Windown Azure,
Apache Stratos
Microsoft Office 365
4.2 Recommended Cloud Approach
The differences among the infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software
as a service is discussed in the above section. It is necessary to evaluate which model of cloud
will be appropriate for Regional Gardens. Since the existing SharePoint 2010 instance will be
used it is recommended for Regional Garden to use Platform as a service. This is considered as
an appropriate approach as it will help in integrating the SharePoint 2010 services with the
cloud approach. Furthermore, PaaS requires much lesser implementation time in comparison to
the infrastructure as a service. Furthermore this platform offers the flexibility of configuring the
system according to the requirements of the customer and therefore, PaaS cloud approach is
recommended for Regional Gardens. The advantages of using Platform as a Service are as
follows-
1. This cloud platform mainly focuses on the resources required and therefore provides
a cost effective solution. Configuration of the servers and applications are quite easy following
this approach (Fernando, Loke & Rahayu, 2013). Therefore, platform as a service will prove to
be a cost effective solution for Regional Gardens.
2. It is scalable and flexible which ensures optimum usage of the resources of an
organization. Since the service provider will be providing the platform for implementation of
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cloud, it will be very easy for Regional Gardens to implement the different applications (Dinh et
al., 2013).
3. Has proper option of the disaster recovery solution.
4. Offers benefits of automatic updates
5. This service provided by Platform as a service is very reliable.
6. It considerably reduces the capital expenditure needed for the implementation of
cloud storage.
7. Since the platform is provided by the service provider, it reduces the skill
requirements of the customer.
8. The scalability option includes rapid allocation and de-allocation of resources on the
pay as you go model of platform as a service.
However, there are certain problems that Regional gardens might encounter by
adopting the platform as a service model of cloud. The issues are as follows (Kolb & Wirtz,
2014)-
1. Although the cost of implementation of platform as a service cloud model is very low
since the platform is provided by the service provider, there is certain security issues associated
with the same as the service provider gets to access the data of the customers (Malfara, 2013).
2. It is essential for the Regional Gardens to check the software compatibility with the
platform to be provided.
3. The cost of maintenance of the system will be high as well.
These are the major issue that Regional gardens might face in implementation of its
applications in PaaS model.
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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.
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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.
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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