Cloud Architecture That Will Be Used Will Include Hybrid Cloud

Question: Explain Cloud Architecture That Will Be Used Will Include Hybrid Cloud? Answer: Introduction SoftArc Engineering Ltd is an Australian Company that has its domain in civil engineering. The company has decided to close it data centre that is currently located in Brisbane and has decided to shift the same in Sydney that is technically advanced. Also, the web services have been decided to be migrated on a cloud platform. The document covers the details and strategies that the organization should follow. Cloud Architecture Reasons for Deployment The cloud architecture that will be used will include Hybrid cloud as the deployment model as it will align with the business strategies. It is an integrated cloud computing model that will include certain parts of the information associated with the data centre to be stored on-premise and rest of the information to be present on the cloud. It is the model that will allow the organization to enhance its capability be easily aggregating and assembling with rest of the packages and will fit as per the business requirements and strategies (Tarannum, Ahmed, 2013). The delivery model that will be used in case of SoftArc Engineering Ltd will be Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model. It has been selected for the organization because of its features that have been listed below. It is the model that will allow accessibility to more than one user simultaneously leading to enhanced multi-tasking without any issues in the performance The model will allow the organization to carry out dynamic scaling which will allow the architecture and the associated components to be scaled up or down as per the requirement The cost that will come with model will be low Distributed resources will be used and will be associated with this model Benefits and Issues of Hybrid Cloud There will be several benefits that will be caused because of the deployment of hybrid cloud in the cloud architecture of the organization. This particular model will demand lesser funds and money in terms of the infrastructure which would allow the money to be spent on other areas. The security that will come along with hybrid cloud will also be better than the rest of the models and counterparts. The agility and flexibility associated with the organization will also improve as this particular model is scalable in nature. It will also allow enhanced form of accessibility which will lead to better customer satisfaction (Boava, Iano, 2016). However, there may also be certain issues that may come up with the deployment of hybrid cloud in the architecture. These issues will be in the form of the security concerns and issues along with the required set of skills for executing the cloud services. Data and application integration may also emerge as one of the challenges for the system analysts and experts. Risks and Countermeasures There may be a number of security and other risks that may emerge with the hybrid cloud strategy that have been described in the table below. Name of the Risk Description Possible Countermeasure Shared Access One of the prime features that come along with hybrid cloud is that of multi-tenancy along with multi-tasking of the cloud services and components. There are scenarios in which shared access is provided to the users which lead to the emergence of a lot many problems. There are several users that simultaneously access the cloud and there are several associated resources that are shared such as memory, database, equipment and many more. There may be emergence of various risks because of this reason such as the ones related with spoofing and IP addresses. Security and privacy of the information may get impacted because of the same (Padmavathi, 2016). There shall be access and identity right allotted to each of the user along with a dedicated timeframe to make use of the resource. Tracking and monitoring of the same shall be performed regularly. Cost and Schedule Risks There are various components that are involved with hybrid cloud and there is a cost that is involved with each of these components. It becomes difficult to estimate these costs and the associated schedule that leads to various issues for the management. There is always an uncertainty associated with the cloud because of this reason. It will be required to carry out detailed planning in order to make sure that the cost and schedule estimations are carried out in presence of an expert Legal Risks There will be a lot of information that will be stored on the hybrid cloud. This information may belong to several categories such as private, confidential, sensitive and likewise. Any violation in the properties of these information types will lead to legal obligations and issues. Legal policies and regulations shall be applied along with the enhancement of the security infrastructure to make sure that any such risks are not executed Security Risks Cloud data is present and accessible over the network which leads to several threats and risks associated with the access and authentication of the user. There may be several security risks in the form of network security attacks that may be given shape by the malicious entities and these entities may attempt to violate the access and identity controls that are implemented. Such an occurrence will lead to emergence of information security risks and threats. It will be necessary to enhance the overall security architecture to make sure that the security risks are avoided and it will be essential to adapt administrative as well as technical controls to make sure that the security risks are not executed by the attackers Availability Risks Availability of the cloud will be essential for the smooth functioning of the related operations. The availability may be hampered by the execution of various attacks on the cloud services and cloud model which may lead to deterioration of the reputation It will be necessary to enhance the overall security architecture to make sure that the security risks are avoided and it will be essential to adapt administrative as well as technical controls to make sure that the security risks are not executed by the attackers (Al-Rashedi, 2014) Data Ownership and Authority Risks Hybrid cloud will be composed of several users and the data will belong to many users. There may be risks of data ownership along with data authority that may emerge There shall be user roles and privileges defined and the same shall be carried out by the administrator General Security Steps There are primarily three steps to security that will be required to undertake. These three steps will include administrative, logical and physical security steps. Administrative steps shall include the enhancement of evaluation and validation checks along with their frequency to make sure that the progress is being done without any deviations. There shall also be reviews and audits that shall be carried out by the senior management along with the experts (Benkhelifa, Fernando, Welsh, 2013). Technical security will make up for the logical steps that will include the execution of measures such as use of automated tools and packages for prevention and detection of attacks, enhanced authentication and access control and likewise. Physical security shall also be improved by making use of the enhanced form of physical control over the entry and access points to avoid the attacks (Gordon, 2016). Components and Requirements Application Resilience In association with the requirements of the SoftArc Engineering Ltd, there are a few high availability requirements that will be met with the use of hybrid cloud and its deployment. There are a number of availability zones along with load balancing and dynamic scaling that is associated with this cloud model which will make sure that the application resilience is maintained and reflected (Varadharajan, Tupakula, 2016). Fault tolerance will be installed that will make sure that there is no single point of failure present in the clpud model There will be use of best practices and adherance to the defined standards will also be ensured Storage options that will come along with the model will be ample for data storage on the cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery There may be various security risks that may be given shape by the attackers and it will be necessary to include the backup and disaster recovery options in the cloud architecture. The backup model that comes along with hybrid cloud comprises of frequent and automated backup to make sure that the risks and attacks may be avoided. The disaster recovery plan that will be designed for the hybrid cloud and the one that will make sure that it applies to the same will include the following measures Preventative The basic form of security will be enhanced so that there is no occurrence of the security risk or an attack. Reactive These will be the measures and mechanisms that will be followed to minimize the damage. Detective Detection of the intruders using automated tools and packages will also be incorporated (Linthicum, 2016). Administrative Enhancement of the policies and the frameworks will be done to make sure that the checks and validations are performed. Remote Server Administration Administrators will be provided with the ability to remotely monitor the hybrid cloud along with all of its components. In case of remote server administrator, the common issues that come up are in the form of scalability and accessibility of the services and applications. However, in the case of hybrid cloud, there is dynamic scaling along with greater flexibility associated which makes sure that remote server administration is possible (Tarannum, Ahmed, 2013). There may be issues with the security and the strength of the evaluation process which will be made sure with the aid of protection mechanisms. Resource Management There will be several resources that will be involved with the hybrid cloud and these resources will be aptly managed. There will be an equilibrium that will be created between all of the employees and the resources that will be associated and time management along with change management will also be handled efficiently. Hybrid cloud has the mechanism to carry out required set of policies and administrative checks which will be done to make sure that the resources are adequately managed. SLA Management The following set of factors will be considered for SLA management in the organization. The services that have bee agreed upon between the cloud provider and SoftArc Engineering Ltd Duties and responsibilities that are allocated to the project resources Internal partners and their involvement Cost and details of the features that are implemented The above components that are associated with the hybrid cloud will be compatible with either of the IaaS or PaaS model of cloud. Migration to AWS It has been decided that the SharePoint location along with the SQL Server that has been deployed in the organization shall be moved to the AWS cloud which stands for Amazon Web Services. The following steps shall be taken to complete the process as these steps will make sure that the migration process is completed successfully without any risks and the business objectives are achieved. Planning phase shall be carried out with the definition of scope, goals, assumptions and dependencies. There shall be an analysis of the risks along with their treatment strategy that must be defined (Sekaran, Krishna, 2016). The migration process shall be carried out in a series of phases rather than all at once. Validations and verifications on the performance and compatibility checks shall be carried out. Next series of migration shall be executed after the completion of first iteration. Conclusion Cloud computing is an integral part of the modern day businesses and it is essential to make sure that the cloud models and architecture is applied across the organizations. SoftArc Engineering Ltd has taken step to move to the cloud by enhancing its cloud architecture with the incorporation of hybrid cloud along with IaaS model. There are several issues and risks that may be associated with the procedure that shall be handled with the aid of proper measures along with the enhancement of security. References Al-Rashedi, A. (2014). 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