Paper on Cloud Computing Unveiled: A Comprehensive Analysis and Implementation Guide for BallotOnline

Introduction

Cloud computing has become popular and enabled by many businesses. Cloud computing can be said to be an on-demand provision of computer resources featuring data storage that can be said to be cloud storage and also to compute power to the user (Hurwitz & Kirsch, 2020). Different companies have emerged to offer the same services, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Therefore, this report focuses on giving details about cloud computing and how BallotOnline company can implement the same.

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Research Networking and Auxiliary Service in Cloud Computing

Different services are provided in cloud computing, both networking and other auxiliary services. These services are essential as they ensure that cloud computing users can get all the services they need.

Networking Services

Cloud computing is featured by providing three essential services. These services include:

Applications in the Cloud

Cloud computing gets featured with applications in the cloud that are often referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS) (Baun & Kunze, 2019). It is a networking service provided in the cloud and featured with providing fully functional applications that can be accessed and delivered through the cloud. For instance, an application in the cloud includes Google Apps that are said to be suitable for cloud-based office applications designed to compete with other real applications such as Microsoft Office applications.

Cloud-based applications are said to be provided at a small monthly fee while the user does not have to worry about how to upgrade the applications to the latest versions. Also, the users do not have to worry about how to deploy the application on the network. Also, the users who have subscribed to these services get provided with all the hardware. They also access operating systems for these applications (Hurwitz & Kirsch, 2020).

Platforms in the Cloud

Platform as a Service (PaaS) is also an important service provided by cloud computing services. Cloud computing is said to have the ability to give their user access to a remote virtual operating platform where the users are allowed to build their applications (Mahmud, Srirama, Ramamohanarao & Buyya, 2020). With cloud computing, the PaaS provider gives the user access to a complete and functional remote virtual machine already configured and gets used for deployment of the applications of the users.

An example of PaaS witnessed when the user is allowed to host his website virtually. Also, some essential services offered include Linux systems and Apache or MySQL services. Also, essential services such as data storage, credit card payment, and online order processing featured as PaaS and a networking service provided by cloud computing services (Bursell, 2019).

Infrastructure in the Cloud

Infrastructure in the cloud is said to be a service that enables the user to maintain operating systems and other elements of the platform. It can be Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Jonas et al., 2019). IaaS is said to be the process of accessing raw computing power in the cloud. It is a better service that users can access essential computing resources than purchasing them by themselves.

Auxiliary Services

Cloud computing is also said featured with other essential auxiliary services. Almost everyone is using cloud computing unknowingly. Some of the vital auxiliary services that are provided by cloud computing include:

Create Cloud-Native Applications

Cloud computing gets featured by providing a quick platform used for building, deploying, and scaling applications (Baun & Kunze, 2019). These are essential services and take advantage of cloud-native technologies and approaches like Kubernetes and also microservices design.

Store, Backup, and Recovery Data

In cloud computing, this is an important service that ensures that the user can store his data, backup, and recovery anytime they want to use the data. It gives protection to data said to be cost-effective and with a massive scale for storage.

Stream Audio and Video

Cloud computing gets featured with providing the user capabilities to connect with their audience anytime, anywhere, and using any device.

Research Cloud Trends, Best Practices, and Migration Issues

Cloud computing is said to be changing all the time, and it has various trends, practices, and issues related to migration. Different trends have emerged in cloud computing. Some of the trends include the continued rise of hybrid cloud computing, edge computing moves to center stage, and hyper-scale data centres set to scale up. There is an increased demand for disaster recovery as a service peak, increased use of AI in the data center, hyper-converged Infrastructure associated with increased interest, and the rise of containers (Hurwitz & Kirsch, 2020). These are among the common trends that have emerged in the cloud computing sector so that they can give optimal services to customers.

On the other hand, there are various best practices that one can understand when using cloud computing. Some of the standard methods that the users of cloud computing users should focus on are the following. First, understanding the economics of the cloud, building a minimum cloud viable, performing a security and governance gap assessment, having continuous compliance with the cloud, and implementing automation frameworks that are important in cloud computing (Mahmud et al., 2020). It is essential to adhere to the best practices that will make it easier for the individual or the organization to adopt cloud computing.

Cloud computing is faced with various challenges during the time of migration. They can either be internal issues or external issues. Some of the common migration issues that cloud computing faces during migration include aligning with cloud migration strategy with the objectives of the business in an organization, equipping employees with the skills required and also upgrading the process, solving database issues, and overcoming incompatibility of the operating system (Baun & Kunze, 2019).

Typical Architectures of Cloud Deployments

There is various cloud deployment, and the most common ones are public cloud, community cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud (Bursell, 2019). A public cloud is a cloud that is said to be open to the public and can be owned and operated by anyone. They are said to be found on the premises of the provider. A private cloud is a cloud that is used by a single organization that has various consumers. It is owned and managed by the organization. In addition to that, the community cloud is said to be a cloud made of both public and private clouds. Lastly, a hybrid cloud is said to be a combination of any of the three clouds (Jonas et al., 2019).

Propose Cloud Architecture for Ballot Online Deployment

BallotOnline is said to be an organization that has multiple employees who carry out different operations. For this organization, the best cloud deployment is the private cloud. It is a cloud that is managed, operated, and owned by the organization. The organization is said to control how the cloud is set up and run, and all the privacy and security issues, and BallotOnline will have control over where data will be geographically located (Hurwitz & Kirsch, 2020).

Research Amazon Web Services

AWS is one of the famous companies providing cloud computing services. AWS is featured in offering over 175 services to consumers. Many consumers consider the company to have the most functionality, having the largest community of partners and consumers. It is said to be the most secure cloud computing provider and the company that has shown the fastest pace in its services (Baun & Kunze, 2019). With the vast services that AWS provides, it matches the needs of BallotOnline. Also, the pricing of AWS is very low.

Research Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is another company that is featured in providing cloud computing services. The company featured services and products such as computing, mobile, analytics, storage, web, and networking. Compare the services and how the company is said to price its services higher. Therefore, the company does not meet the needs of the BallotOnline company.

AWS Proof of Concept

The following steps are used to set up POC on AWS.

• Go to the AWS Certificate Manager Console in US-EAST-1 in the provisional certificate section.
• Requesting a public certificate
• Adding a domain name to one of the companies (CNAME)
• Select the DNS validation method and confirm.
• Copy the CNAME value presented in the validation dialogue then complete it.
• Go to Route 53 in the console.
• Creating a Recordset.
• Enter the values that were obtained from the certificate manager to create other record sets.
• Return to the certificate manager to wait for the issuance of the certificate.
• Generate Azure Proof of Certificate

The user follows the following steps to have access to Azure.

• There is navigation to the web app.
• Select the name of the web app.
• Check for pricing tier.
• Scale up the App service plan.

Recommendation and Conclusions

It will be of great help when the organization chooses to go with AWS and not go for Microsoft Azure. As per the requirement that BallotOnline company has shown to implement on cloud computing, the company achieves those needs when it goes for AWS. AWS is said to be the most popular cloud computing that provides more services than other companies. It is featured with many customers, is more secure, and has a lower price for its services.

Also, BallotOnline company should implement the use of a private cloud. A private cloud will allow the organization to manage, own, and control everything it wants. Also, the cloud will only be visible to employees at BallotOnline which will make the cloud more secure compared to when the company goes for other cloud deployments like a public cloud that can be accessed by anyone.

References

Baun, C., & Kunze, M. (2019). Cloud computing Web-basierte dynamische IT-services. Springer-Verlag.

Bursell, M. (2019). U.S. Patent No. 10,263,842. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Hurwitz, J. S., & Kirsch, D. (2020). Cloud computing for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.

Jonas, E., Schleier-Smith, J., Sreekanti, V., Tsai, C. C., Khandelwal, A., Pu, Q., ... & Gonzalez, J. E. (2019). Cloud programming simplified: A Berkeley view on serverless computing. arXiv preprint arXiv:1902.03383.

Mahmud, R., Srirama, S. N., Ramamohanarao, K., & Buyya, R. (2020). Profit-aware application placement for integrated Fog–Cloud computing environments. Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 135, 177-190.