TASK
You are an ICT Cloud consultant and you have been approached by DR Alarms to advise them on how to improve their data centre and move into the Cloud. The Managing Director (MD) is still unsure that this is the best approach for his company as he feels that his company is -too small to be thinking about moving to the Cloud- and that any money should be spent on design, engineering and development rather than ICT. But both the Engineering manager and Sales Manager are both concerned that if the company's data centre isn't improved then the company will not be able to expand.
The company is in the process of gearing up for a major order for their new IoT devices and have realised that their ICT system is not up to the task of supporting this new product line and the level of interest that it is generating. The company is reluctant to put more capital into ICT infrastructure as the MD, correctly, reasons that this capital will be needed to support sales, manufacturing and distribution. The MD has read that the company can set up ICT infrastructure on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for no capital cost and reasonable monthly payments for the use of their infrastructure. The DR Alarms MD is not entirely convinced that this is a valid approach as the company has always purchased and owned its own infrastrastructure so that it is not reliant on other organisations. But in the current circumstances, a Cloud approach now has to be investigated.
Task
The MD has asked you to prepare a report that discusses:
1. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages, other than cost, of moving the DR Alarms ICT infrastructure to the Cloud (20 marks).
2. Explain which of the Cloud Architectures that you think would be useful for DR Alarms to use as part of their Cloud infrastructure. This explanation should discuss:
a. How the current DR Alarms infrastructure could be replicated or replaced in a Cloud deployment. This should include a diagram with a full description (20 marks), and
b. Which of the DR Alarms servers should be deployed using an IaaS model and which should be deployed using PaaS (10 marks)
3. Which approach would you recommend to DR Alarms to improve the desktop experience for their staff. You have previously discussed using Amazon Workspaces to provide a full Windows desktop to all users, but the company has been discussing the possible use of Microsoft Office 365 on their existing desktops. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches and which one would you recommend and why. (30 marks).
4. The Engineering Manager wants to run an online forum/discussion board for their new IoT devices. He thinks that this will allow his team to quickly and easily learn of issues and problems that customers have with their IoT devices, and would also give them a place to discuss possible new developments. You think that this could well be best handled by the use of an Cloud Edge solution. What should be considered to develop this type of service, and what advantages and disadvantages would this give to DR Alarms? (20 marks)
Your report should have a word count of 3000 words ± 10%. Your report should provide references in APA 7th ed. format.
RATIONALE
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:
• be able to compare and evaluate the ability of different cloud computing architectures to meet a set of given business requirements.
• be able to evaluate a set of business requirements to determine suitability for a cloud computing delivery model.
• be able to identify and design an ICT Risk Management strategy for a cloud computing delivery plan to meet business requirements.
• be able to critically analyse business requirements to plan a migration to a cloud model.
PRESENTATION
Your report must be presented in either MS Word or PDF format using the following headings:
• Migration to the Cloud
• Possible Cloud Architectures
• Use of the Cloud Edge
Your report should use the following presentation standards:
• Use Calibri, or a similar font, in 11- or 12-point type.
• All diagrams and images are to be embedded in the document. Diagrams and images that are supplied separately will not be marked.
• All text should be left-justified.
• Each page must have a header or footer with your name and student number. Page numbers must be shown in the footer of each page, except on the title page.
• Answers to the questions must be in your own words and should be precise but complete and informative. No marks will be awarded for any answer containing more than 10% direct quotes (referenced or unreferenced).
• APA reference style must be used throughout the document with the bibliography at the end of the document. In-text citations should also follow APA7 style.