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Question: Describe which Cloud Architectures you would Employ to assist SoftArc Engineering meet the Boards Strategy? Answer: The company should use hybrid cloud architecture in which the company uses a combination of a private cloud at its premises (the Sydney data center) and a public cloud platform provided by a third party service provider, such as AWS (Amazon Web Services) (Claybrook, 2017). The private cloud will entail SoftArc purchasing and configuring its own hardware in the data center using a proprietary architecture. For private cloud, it is recommended that SoftArc utilizes virtualization that will provide true scalability, even if the data center has physical limitations, and still ensure reduced power consumption and use of hardware and software (NetSource, 2016). Further, it is proposed that the whole data center be virtualized and a RAID 5 with stripping and parity is used (Null Lobur, 2006); the storage disks should be SSDs (solid state drives) for greater speeds. This data center will have two backups; an off location backup and a virtual mirror backup, with encryption for data security and redundancy. The public cloud should also have encryption and be linked using the OpenStack software layer, which is compatible with AWS (Ziembicki Fazio, 2011). The hybrid Cloud architecture has several merits, and is particularly suitable for the SoftArc case The hybrid architecture will ensure optimized workloads and greater flexibility which maximizes efficiency while allowing scaling the cloud. The hybrid architecture will allow SoftArc to choose where to put applications, usually where they can run best. It also allows for optimization of billing, ensuring efficient cost management; it enables SoftArc to respond to business needs as necessary by allowing the choice between CAPEX and OPEX (Kennedy, 2017). The hybrid cloud architecture will also allow for stability and availability, aspects necessary for BPC (business process continuity) as applications can be run within the private cloud and the public cloud. However, the hybrid cloud still faces some issues; the company may have to deal with multiple cloud providers where on average, firms run 2 public and 2 private clouds. Billing optimization is another challenger,; despite being a benefit, if not managed properly, it can be a huge challenge. There can be problems with communication between clouds, and the companys total control over its data is reduced in public clouds, potentially creating security challenges (IBM, 2014). Hybrid cloud risk matrix Risk profile Risk Score 1 2 3 4 5 Lack of data redundancy 0.6 Compliance 0.6 Poorly constructed SLAs 1 poor Risk management 0.8 Poor Security management 0.7 The steps to take to ensure security of the hybrid cloud architecture starts with the private cloud; the data center should be encrypted during transfers, on top of having a virtual backup, which is also encrypted. Access to the data center should be controlled strictly, and staff educated on what they can and cannot do when accessing data center resources. A physical firewall along with software firewall should be implemented in the servers. The routers used at the data center should be encrypted to mitigate malicious attacks through these points. For the public cloud; the public cloud can be configured with a VPN configuration (Mateak, 2016). SoftArc must ensure the SLA (service level agreement) signed with the cloud service provider(s) is comprehensive and contains measures for security, data ownership by SoftArc, and expected performance; it should allow SoftArc to test the security measures. Responsibilities and policies must also be defined in the SLA; the provider Hypervisors should particularly be tested by a third party to ensure they do not have vulnerabilities. The APIs should also be secured, and encrypted for safe anywhere access to the public cloud resources (Lukan, 2014). The foundation for ensuring BCP in the hybrid cloud is planning; the inbound and outbound points of connection and the storage have to be well planned. SoftArc must ensure the SLA specifies that the public cloud service provider(s) have alternate backups in different locations so that continuity is achieved even if one of their data centers is down (Knudson, 2013) (Colman-Meixne, Develder, Tornatore, Mukherjee, 2016). As mentioned earlier, SoftArc must ensure the private cloud is backed up in a different location and virtualized; both the private and public cloud must have redundancy implemented using suitable RAID configurations. The private cloud service provider(s) must always replicate their data centers, and this must be specified in the SLA and be tested by SoftArc regularly. The private cloud should also be replicated through virtualization for disaster recovery and BCP; there must be cross hypervisor replication, replication to a public cloud, and seamless application mobili ty coupled with fast migrations. The private cloud should also be replicated to a secured public cloud (Zerto, 2017) The factors SoftArc engineers must consider for remote administration, resource and SLA management include the kind and type of resources to be stored in the public cloud, the billing, and the cloud levels for the cloud (the application and platform level). The people who will administer the cloud services must be considered and the level of access they can have to the cloud services; it must consider whether multiple accounts will be used. The account governance and billing issues must be evaluated; the billing should be optimal as to minimize costs and maximize usage and performance. The team must consider the management of the APIs, the operating system, data access, and network; the API should be evaluated to either be standardized or not. The desired QoS (quality of service) must also guide the considerations for remote administration. The team must consider the available bandwidth and storage provided to them and the number of people that will access the cloud resources, Vis a Vis the security risks (Amazon Web Service, 2013). The access level control the service provider allows must also be considered as are the application resilience and the required backups. In the management of SLAs, the SoftArc engineers and staff must consider the desired security and privacy levels, the desired redundancy, disaster recovery, the response time (performance), and the available bandwidth, further, the access to the service providers online backup assets and non-performance clauses must also be considered in managing the SLA. The requisite certifications must also be considered (Dorion, 2017), (Marinescu, 2013). To migrate the SharePoint instance and SQL server, the important thing is to first plan; determine the scale and size of the data to be migrated for SharePoint and My SQL. After determining this, the SoftArc staff will then need to determine the required resources (servers, the number of users, data volume, and transactions). For the SoftArc case, due to virtualization, it is recommended that the services be consolidated (SQL and SharePoint) to reduce costs and complexity. The SharePoint version to be used must be determined, whether 2013 or the 2016 version). The active directory for the SharePoint and SQL is then determined and set and linked to the cloud service provider (if AWS, for example) and the active directory relationships determined. The SharePoint site is then secured using a DNS; the DNS is then linked to the account of the provider to allow full access. A secure SSL corticated (for Linux) and DRM (for Windows) is established and defined. The AWS templates should be use d during migration (Amazon Web Services, 2017) References Amazon Web Service. (2013). Operational Checklists for AWS. Retrieved May 13, 2017, from Amazon Web Service: https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-operational-checklists.pdf Amazon Web Services. (2017). Microsoft SQL Server on AWS. Retrieved May 13, 2017, from Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com/windows/products/sql/ Claybrook, B. (2017). Analyzing today's hybrid cloud architectures. 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Advantages and challenges of hybrid cloud adoption. Retrieved may 13, 2017, from Online tech: https://resource.onlinetech.com/advantages-and-challenges-of-hybrid-cloud-adoption/ Knudson, J. (2013, September 16). Hybrid Cloud Disaster Recovery Best Practices . Retrieved May 13, 2017, from Enterprise Networking Planet: https://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netsysm/hybrid-cloud-disaster-recovery-best-practices.html Lukan, D. (2014, May 21). Building a Secure API in a Cloud Environment. Retrieved may 13, 2017, from Infosec Institute: https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/building-secure-api-cloud-environment/#gref Marinescu, D. (2013, Oct). Cloud Computing: Manage your resources. Retrieved May 13, 2017, from Microsoft Technet: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn456533.aspx Mateak, G. (2016). Ensuring Cloud Security: What You Might Not Know . Retrieved May 13, 2017, from Security Metrics: https://blog.securitymetrics.com/2015/10/ensuring-cloud-security-not-know.html NetSource. (2016, may 19). Virtualized Server vs. Private Cloud vs. Dedicated Cloud Whats the Difference? Retrieved May 13, 2017, from Net Source: https://www.netsource.com/blog/virtualized-server-vs-private-cloud-vs-dedicated-cloud-whats-difference/ Null , L., Lobur, . (2006). The Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture. Sudbury: jones bartlett Publishers. Zerto. (2017). Hybrid Cloud. Retrieved May 13, 2017, from Zerto: https://www.zerto.com/solutions/infrastructure/hybrid-cloud-dr-replication-offsite-backup-migrations/ Ziembicki, D., Fazio, A. (2011, May). Cloud Computing: Architecting a Microsoft Private Cloud. Retrieved may 13, 2017, from Microsoft Technet: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh127072.aspx