Choose one of the following database scenarios: Transactional database (e.g., eCommerce)Analytic database (query very large datasets)Internet scale application (serves content and stores both structur

This paper explains the benefits and concerns of moving to a cloud environment for the Grass is Greener, Inc. (GIG, Inc.). The GIC, Inc. needs to move from their on-premises data center to the cloud. A brief history about the GIG, Inc. company is that it is a large landscaping company and it has outgrown their current IT structure. It has a strong online presence which provides fifty percent of their new customer traffic and the convenient online payment section for clients. It also has a back-end database that houses critical data which includes inventory, scheduling, pricing history, and personal identifiable information of clients. The company needs to move the webserver and database to the cloud. The network connection to these webserver and database needs to be secure among other things. This paper will look at moving the webserver and database to the cloud environment from various angles such as costs, technology, high level design options (IaaS, SaaS and PaaS), security and reliability.

Cloud computing refers to applications and services run on a distributed network using virtualized resources and they can be accessed by common Internet protocols such HTTPS and networking standards.

Costs of the cloud environment are cheaper compared to having every resource on-premise. According to Amazon Web Services (AWS.Amazon.com) the data storage is for first 50 Terabytes per month is $0.023 per GB and this amounts to $1.15 per month and the cost of buying a new storage server is $1000 to $3000 for small businesses (Lahn M, 2019). According to storageservers.com, servers do not come with Operating Systems and applications installed. Storageservers.com adds that server Operating Systems can cost $1000 up to $4000 for five users. It is also cheaper to manage the servers of cloud computing environment since it is mostly managed by the company providing the services and therefore the company buying the space can do away with personnel such as database administrator etc. thus reducing cost.

Cloud environment provides two technologies and these include: deployment model and service model. The deployment model is further divided into public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community cloud. The public cloud is available for public use or alternatively for a large industry group. The private cloud is used by an organization. The hybrid cloud combines multiple clouds such as private and public. A community cloud is one that has been organized to serve a common function. The GIG Inc. will benefit from these deployment models by using the public cloud since it is a large landscaping company.

The service model is further divided into Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). The GIG Inc. will benefit from these services by using virtualized routers, switches etc. as IaaS and also development of online presence system, database etc. as business model changes from time to time through using the Platform as a Service. Lastly, the organization will benefit by accessing the organizations’ system such as database etc. through using Software as a Service (SaaS).

In high level design options we will look at the models of cloud computing and these include: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

IaaS is a cloud computing service model whereby hardware is virtualized in the cloud and service vendor owns the equipment which include servers, storage, network infrastructure etc .In this model the cloud networking services are provided to the GIG, Inc. and all its benefits such load balancing. The storage infrastructure is also provided to the GIG, Inc.

SaaS is software that is deployed on a hosted service and is accessed globally over the Internet using Internet protocols. The most often way to access them is using a browser. GIG Inc will benefit from Software as a Service since we will deploy our web server and database to the cloud.

Platform as a Service is the provision of a software environment whereby a developer can create customized solutions while using the development tools provided by the platform. A good example of this will be Github.com. GIG Inc. will benefit from the PaaS since the online presence software; database and payment system may need to be changed from time to time due to changes in business model. It is not convenient to change things on the production environment, therefore we need to lease the Platform as a Service and let our developers work from there. It is also beneficial to the organization since we don’t need to install software on our workstations and some of this development software may be costly.

The benefits that we will get as GIG Inc. when it comes to security is that cloud environment provide security in various levels. This can be seen through the use of access control list (ACL) which determines who has access to what object and what level of access they have.

Cloud service providers also ensure that their services are at per with the latest security technology and compliance regulations. For example, data will be encrypted with the current market technologies.

Another thing with cloud environment data storage is that data can be recovered since the same data can be distributed in several data centers and in case of failure of one data center, the other ones can provide the data. Security is also enhanced using brokered cloud storage access.

The cloud environment provides reliability. Cloud computing network has an ability to provide load balancing and failover. Reliability provided by cloud computing environment is more than what can be achieved by a single organization.

The GIG, Inc. will benefit from reliability since a cloud environment stores data in several data centers even if one fails, the data can still be accessed, and the user will not know that one data center is down. Still on the same, reliability, a user can be able to access or compute complex data queries from the database without experiencing delays due to network load balancing. The network is always available even if one channel fails, the data packets it transmitted using another channel.

References

Lahn, M. (2019). How much does a server cost for a small business? Retrieved from https://www.servermania.com/kb/articles/how-much-does-a-server-cost-for-a-small-business/