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Read the DTGOV Case Study before you attempt this assignment

DTGOV want to migrate some of their webservers to an IaaS instance in AWS to test their strategy. They understand that they need to do a full migration plan first, but they want to determine what sort of architecture would be required to support their web services.

The web services are considered essential by both DTGOV and their users, so any web services must be:

• Readily available and accessible at all times
• Capable of handling heavy loads in times of peak demand
• Capable of serving downloads to users as required
• Secure from attacks
• Capable of providing reports on usage

Your task is to prepare an initial PowerPoint briefing for the DTGOV board. Your briefing should discuss:

1. Initial Webserver trial: (30 marks)
   1. Explain how the selected DTGOV webservers will work in an IaaS instance in the AWS Cloud environment and how will this move affect users of these web services. You should also explain if you think the users will benefit from this move, and why they will benefit, or not;
   2. Explain the types of Cloud Architectures that you think would be useful for DTGOV to use as part of their webserver infrastructure in the Cloud. This explanation should also briefly discuss how the current DTGOV infrastructure could be replicated or replaced in a Cloud deployment.
   3. You do not need to talk to security of the infrastructure or webservers in this briefing.
2. Office 365: (30 marks)
   1. Many of DTGOV’s customers want to provide all their staff with the ability to access office automation, such as email, word processing and spreadsheet capabilities, as well as online storage for their files, whether they are in the office, at home, or working at a remote site in the field. The DTGOV board is very concerned to learn about the critical issues, other than cost, that may affect the supply of Cloud based office automation to their customers’ staff. You will need to prepare a briefing on the best way to provide office automation for DTGOV customers. Your presentation should:
      • Discuss the benefits and issues that DTGOV customers, and their users, would achieve from moving to Office 365 as their office automation suite.
      • Describe how a cloud-based approach will differ from providing this suite from an on-premise data center.
3. SharePoint: (40 marks)
   1. DTGOV is also considering whether to use PaaS or SaaS to provide some services to specific customers. DTGOV has deployed Microsoft SharePoint 2010 from its data center as a collaboration and document management tool. The SharePoint 2010 instance has been extensively customised to suit DTGOV requirements and deploys Project Central, their Project Management tool as a separate application from within SharePoint. DTGOV would like to move its SharePoint 2010 instance to the cloud to make it more available to more customers, particularly those at remote sites. DTGOV wants you to report on:
      • What are the major differences between the models IaaS, PaaS and SaaS? (10 marks)
      • Recommend the model that you consider most appropriate for this service and discuss why this model is the most appropriate for the SharePoint service. (15 marks)
      • What are the most likely problems that DTGOV will encounter with the model that you recommend? How would you advise DTGOV to deal with these issues? (15 marks)

Each slide in the briefing must also include speaking notes in the notes section to explain the slide, and all images used in the briefing should be referenced.

Answer 1

DTGOV Case Study:

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Agenda:

• Problem Statement
• Business requirements
• Potential Solution Trial
• Office 365 as a solution
• Sharepoint as a solution
• Difference between IaaS, SaaS and PaaS
• Cloud based approach v/s On premise data center
• Recommendation

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Slide 1 Content:

Problem Statement:

DTGOV wants to migrate existing webservers to an IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) instance on AWS (Amazon Web Services).

Slide 1 Speaking Notes:

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a cloud services platform which provide business level compute power, storage, security and content delivery solutions. This solution overcomes the issues of server maintenance, upgrades and man power needed to keep the in-premise servers up and running.

DTGOV is looking forward to an IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) solution to migrate their existing webservers and provide a robust and cost effective solution.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) solutions are online services providing high availability and scalable APIs to overcome the dependency on physical on premise computing resources.

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Slide 2 Content:

Business requirements

• Readily available and accessible at all times.
• Capable of handling heavy loads in times of peak demand.
• Capable of serving downloads to users as required.
• Secure from attacks.
• Capable of providing reports on usage.

Slide 2 Speaking Notes:

The solution DTGOV is looking forward to must have high availability for the Servers/APIs/Services and should have a 100% uptime with a capability of handling heavy traffic and simultaneous access by multiple users from different geographical locations.

The solution is also expected to handle multiple user sessions along with data Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (C.I.A) while managing download sessions as per user needs.

The secure data transmission, storage and access is again one of the critical needs for the business. The admins/users should also be able to fetch the reports for the usage happening on the server.

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Slide 3 Content:

Potential Solution Trial

              DTGOV Servers on AWS IaaS instance

• Deployment of DTGOV servers on AWS IaaS instance will help users scale their business components with secure, high availability, low cost and low maintenance infrastructure.

Users of this IaaS solution will be benefitted by:

• Security
• Data Confidentiality
• Privacy
• High uptime
• Scalability
• Simple Interface and ease of use
• Accessibility
• Flexibility

Suggested Cloud Architectures for DTGOV:

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a service)
• SaaS (Software as a service)
• PaaS (Platform as a service)

Slide 3 Speaking Notes:

The deployment of DTGOV servers on AWS instance using the IaaS will be a breakthrough for the current and potential users, this migration will help users scale their usage/applications as per their need without depending on local in-premise infrastructure solutions.

The security features along with high availability, flexibility to access applications from anywhere makes AWS the best suited platform.

The proposed cloud infrastructure solutions for DTGOV include IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) which will provide the baseline for deployment of all the infrastructure needs for DTGOV, the SaaS (Software as a Service) will provide DTGOV users with a flexibility to deploy and run webservices/applications in a cost effective manner. PaaS (Platform as a Service) will again give an edge to DTGOV users by facilitating them with the desired platforms, operating systems, kernels and application solutions.

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Slide 4 Content:

Office 365 as a solution

Office 365 automation suite:

Benefits:

• Work from anywhere
• Team collaboration
• Automatic updates
• High security
• Threat Intelligence
• Multidevice support

Disadvantages:

• Need for internet access
• Compatibility concerns

Slide 4 Speaking Notes:

The customers of DTGOV seek Office 365 automation suite as a solution for their office collaboration activities.

This solution definitely comes with benefits like you can work from anywhere if you have an internet connection with you, the team collaboration feature is one of the best in class backed by security and threat intelligence it also works across devices.

On the other hand, the concerns which may arise with use of Office 365 is the core dependency on internet to work followed by compatibility concerns with some old devices which are still in use.

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Slide 5 Content:

Sharepoint as a solution

Sharepoint as a SaaS solution provide following benefits:

• Web Based collaboration
• Better integration with third party apps
• Customization
• Scalability
• Security

Slide 5 Speaking Notes:

DTGOV‘s plan to provide Sharepoint to specific customers can have an extension to the SaaS services being offered by them, the Sharepoint on cloud infrastructure provide better collaboration, great integration with third party and Microsoft applications, a flexible layer of customizations, scalability and security to the customer data.

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Slide 6 Content:

Difference between SaaS, IaaS and PaaS:

IaaS:

• Is a cloud based computing infrastructure.
• PreInstalled and configured hardware or software is delivered
• Virtualized interface is provided

SaaS:

• Fully functional web based applications are provided
• Scalable solutions
• Subscription based or Pay for use model

PaaS:

• Advanced version of IaaS
• Provide stack of services
• Run time libraries and programming language or operating systems are provided.

Slide 6 Speaking Notes:

Different cloud services has different features, for instance IaaS provide just a cloud computing infrastructure with some preinstalled packages and hardwares on a virtual interface while SaaS focuses on Fully functional webservices deployment which are scalable and have a subscription or pay for use model for payment. On the other side a bit more advanced version of IaaS is PssS which provides access to the development libraries and programming languages along with stack of services for use.

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Slide 7 Content:

How Cloud based approach v/s on premise data center

Cloud Based:

• Less Investment and maintenance
• Automated backups and recovery
• Near zero downtime
• Capacity to scale up as and when needed

On Premise:

• High investment needed at regular intervals
• No auto backups and recovery
• May face downtime
• Less scalable and high cost involved

Slide 7 Speaking Notes:

Cloud based services are definitely the way forward and the possibilities they offer are virtually endless. The high cost affective infrastructure along with backups, high availability and scalability gives cloud solutions an edge over traditional on premises infrastructures.

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Slide 8 Content:

Recommendation

• IaaS and SaaS
• Cloud solutions
• Office 365 and Sharepoint

Slide 8 Speaking Notes:

My recommendation for the problem statement of DTGOV is to migrate on the cloud based solutions which include IaaS and SaaS solutions for better integrity, collaboration, security, confidentiality, availability and cost effectiveness.

The Office 365 automation suite is one of the best in class business collaboration and storage tools available in market currently, also with its integration support with SharePoint services the overall turnaround time can be decreased drastically.

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