Identification of key drivers for Cloud computing assignment projects

Question

Task: How to identify key drivers that a business can utilize using Cloud computing assignment research techniques

Answer

Introduction
This Cloud computing assignment investigates how Technology and its means have completely revolutionised the way business processes and industries work and carry their daily operational functionalities. With each passing year, it can be noted that more and more industrial sectors are ditching their traditional model of work and implementing information technology solutions and cloud infrastructure within their business model to enhance productivity and performance. Information technology is extremely handy in providing innovative solutions for shaping up requirements with the renewal of technology. There have been multiple developments in its area with the insertion of artificial intelligence, machine learning, business intelligence and cloud computing to mention a few. The last decade has seen the humongous utilization of the cloud and its features by almost all sectors of the industry to acquire scalability and flexibility. Cloud technology has a variety of users across all sectors of the industry be it automation, insurance, health, finance, military, educational institutions and universities.In the new age of information technology, universities around the globe are implementing different innovative solutions related to information technology in line with the requirements, to improve the expectations of the students and the staff. With the implementation of cloud computing, multiple universities across the globe are now experiencing a complete revolution in their IT support aspect and online education system. As per the Cloud computing assignment finding the rapid increase in the number of such institutions or universities in recent years has raised multiple situations regarding the type and quality of the service. Cloud computing has the power to provide universities with the benefit of information services within limited budgets without making any additional financial investment for communication and information technology resources. With the application of the cloud in higher education and universities, the flow of knowledge can be easily managed for increasing efficiency, effectiveness and academic performance in universities.

The Cloud computing assignment findings also show in India, multiple universities still stick to traditional ways of collecting and storing student data and have no means of IT application in their daily university work processes. This has been the case for years and there is sheer reluctance shown by these universities to implement information technology to improve educational functionalities and other operations within the institution. Therefore, during the time of Covid, such universities have been greatly affected to provide education and lectures and maintain the overall operation of their educational framework. Such universities were temporarily closed or their classes were postponed to later dates which interrupted student education and other activities. This proves the need and requirement of information technology application in such places to prevent any kind of unprecedented situation haltering education and teaching. One such university is Calcutta University in the state of West Bengal in India, which uses extremely traditional means to record and store data. This particular university has no technical means to support its mammoth student base which leads to multiple issues within the system of service and that causes the raising of multiple grievances and issues regularly. This report will analyse the current condition of Calcutta university and its need to move into a cloud-based structure to support daily operations. The report will further highlight multiple aspects regarding governance, maintenance, security, ethical issues, deployment,requirements and implementation process. Implementation of cloud computing is exceptionally important in this university and is expected to be a great medium to solve the majority of challengesthe university faces regularly.

Cloud computing assignmentBusiness process and benefits
The popularity of various cloud computing models is constantly increasing by the day (Yadav2014). It is not just a promise which is only discussed at conferences in reality automated and inexpensive management of it is the requirement in most of the universities in India as there has been a paradigm shift recently within the educational infrastructure of the country. The pandemic has been the major pusher for moving activities online which has exposed the various vulnerabilities that exist within the educational infrastructure in many universities in India (Bhardwaj et al., 2021). There have been moments where universities and other educational institutions have struggled their best to provide continuous education during the lockdown or at times of minimum movement and meetups (Agrawal 2021). Therefore, it can be said that these universities face problems in delivering communication and information technology levels which are required to facilitate development activities, research, learning and teaching in an ideal educational setup that is required to meet the very basic inline needs of education. The pandemic has set forward a path in which universities must have a strong background and dependence on IT that will allow them to function in an unprecedented situation without costing time and hindrance in teaching students (Bhardwaj et al., 2021).

Calcutta university in the state of West Bengal in India is one such university identified on this Cloud computing assignment which has faced several similar problems within its educational infrastructure. The university is as old as time can tell and it is the oldest university in India therefore it can be clearly understood why the university still follows and bases its daily operation on traditional means of bookkeeping and maintaining manual ledger and records of every other process within the campus. Calcutta University is known for its extremely backdated work culture and has no technical implications to solve basic solutions. The university haslimited utilization of information technology resources to help its staff or the student body to access any kind of information. The university has recently worked on developing a website which provides necessary information for admission infrastructure fees and other related queries related to the institution. The current business processes of Calcutta university involve manual work and a manual bookkeeping system with no support for information technology applications. The university has a huge number of students in their record yet they follow a manual ledger to keep information about the same. Every process of the university,taken from providing admit cards, migration certificates, degree certificates,and professional certificates to mention a fewis done by a manual handwritten process. In any aspect of its multiple offices, there is no hint of information technology solutions. Any kind of records are manually maintained and therefore cannot be accessed at any point in time from anywhere. To simply get hold of records one must appear in front of the university and request for the same and this process can sometimes take more than days and weeks to get hold of any information that is required by the student urgently. The university faces multiple complaints from every sector for its lack of incorporating information technology solutions and backdated workforce. The university does not have a viable source of information available online for students to access before or during examination for preparation but there isa system of providing offline notes and materials for preparation purposes. Such incidents clearly show the immediate need for this university to migrate its business processes to the cloud which will enable them to solve most of the mentioned problems and enhance the efficiency of its daily operations. The students also face harassment in submitting any kind of application related to accessing certain documents or raising queries. The major challenge the university is facing right now is clearly in maintaining storing and restoring its data. As the university has a manual repository for data storage, any kind of physical mishap can destroy all the manual data records and the university will not have the chance to recover any of them as there is no backup of these records in any system as they were manually maintained. They also have been cases where the university has lost important papers or certificates of students and was unable to present them to the student in a time of urgent need. The manual processes overall bring down the working speed of the employees to a bare minimum and have kind of inculcated a sense of reluctance in the mindset of the workforce of the university. The Cloud computing assignment also identified that during the time of Covid, such universities have been greatly affected to provide education and lectures and maintain the overall operation of their educational framework (Kamaludin, Juanda and Abdullah 2022). Great benefits can be achieved by the university by transforming their current business processes to the cloud as it will clear the majority of their blocks in their daily activities. The university needs to immediately move all its data records and processes to the cloud for ease of access and smooth performance of various business processes. The issues mentioned at Calcutta university are major drawbacks that slow down business processes and daily operations in the university. Incorporating cloud computing will eliminate major manual work and processes, therefore, enhancing the efficiency of work and streamlining multiple processes that take place daily within the university (Rashid, and Chaturvedi 2019). Cloud computing will be really helpful as it will solve the most critical challenges faced by the students of the university in accessing information, data or records (Sunyaev 2020). Migrating to the cloud will ease the data access and records process which can be easily taken out at any point from anywhere with the right authorization and authentication process (Srivastavaand Khan 2018). There are major security concerns by moving to the cloud but the same can be handled with a proper risk management strategy and cyber security measurements.

In academia accessed on this Cloud computing assignment, cloud computing is an extremely powerful tool that has the capability to offer great flexibility and scalability making it possible for administrators, faculty staff, students and other campus users to access databases of the university application and files anytime from anywhere (Bulla, Hunshal and Mehta 2016). Cloud computing has been termed as a silver bullet in the field of educational technology and therefore universities are expected to adopt this technology for reasons which can range from reducing the cost of hardware acquisition and IT maintenancewhile providing greater access to web applications for learners as well as teachers which will better academically outputs. The cost of deploying a cloud is minimum when compared to long term investment and the benefits that can be derived from the cloud is huge as the university will be able to save on hardware infrastructure and other technical costs related to setting up and own system within the university (Sabi et al., 2018). Calcutta University can use the power of cloud computing to redesign its approach toward daily business processes and accomplish their task with higher productivity daily as cloud computing will provide a comprehensive infrastructure which will allow the employees of the university toefficiently streamline interoffice activities. Cloud computing will provide a better andmore efficient way to handle disaster management as it has the capability to provide easy recovery and backup because everything might be miles away but can easily be accessed as a service by a cloud service provider whose backup recovery plans are better than anything compared to manual data storage. With the implementation of cloud computing faculty staff and students can easily meet their needs directly from the computer with access tothe Internet and get their hands on any kind of material required at any point in time (Bora and Ahmed 2013).

Cloud computing assignmentdeployment requirement
University is recommended to move to a software as a service or SaaS model with a hybrid deployment as it will provide them with a rapid information system deployment with significantly reduced operational cost. The university will also gain massive economics of scales, agility and processing speed by migrating its business processes to the cloud. With the adaptation of the hybrid model, Calcutta university can easily deploy cloud services on varying flexibility and scales, depending on the frequency and need of excess and the level of security needed.The selection process for cloud deployment is a part of both tactical and strategical means. Strategic cloud deployment technology selection is done based on the business needs and the strategy of the cloud decided by the university on this specific cloud deployment technology. The tactical selection addresses certain specific service or application needs which have a narrow impact. There are three steps associated with the selection of a cloud deployment model that includes assessing the feet of the cloud deployment technology to the need of the university, understanding service and workload requirement and lastly selecting the right service in the application of cloud deployment technology.

The requirements forCloud computing assignment project for the university will include:
i. Cost: Identifying the cost of the model to be deployed along with other variables and cost drivers associated.
ii. Architectural fit: Understanding architectural applications which will be supported and also the ability to support tired and monolithic applications.
iii. Performance: Determining the requirements for performance associated with the workloads. Depending upon the need for bandwidth and application, deployment types can be decided.
iv. Compliance: It is required to identify the significant customer and regulatory contractual limitations which might impact the level of isolation that is required. This information is extremely important to determine the right cloud deployment technology.
v. Elasticity requirement: Understanding the level of elasticity that will be required to satisfy the forecast and current workload of the university. The cloud deployment technology must have the capability to support the variability in processing the workload for service.

vi. Service management and control requirements: It is important to determine the university’s need in controlling layers of the stack.
vii. Cloud service provider lock-in: Determining portability level is required to understand the flexibility through which provider performance can be managed by having the option to change providers. A broader choice of offerings supporting the solution architecture will significantly reduce lock-in risk.
viii. Dynamic resource management: For migrating to the cloud, it has to be elastic and on-demand, which makes it important to be able to meet service level agreements (SLAs) and the cloud must be resource and workload aware. Oncedeployed it becomes essentially important that the managementhold the capability in creating policies around data management and workload to ensure high performance and efficiency in cloud system delivery.

ix. Security, availability and reliability: the Cloud computing assignment project model must be efficient in providing the required solutions that the university is looking to enhance the reliability and availability of data and other business operation components. Security measures must be ensured for services to only provide authorised access to the users in a shared resource pool model where users will be able to trust that the applications and data are secure.

x. Reporting visibility integration with data centre management: Strong visibility with a proper reporting mechanism is required to manage service level, system performance, billing and compliance.
xi. End-user interface and administrator interface: The administrator interface must have a single pane view into all of the resources service offerings templates and virtual machine instances. The administrator would be allowed to manage the virtual data centre, network and compute resources, manage the virtual library and launch templates. The interface must be designed in a way that will shield the complexity of the service from the end-user and provide an easy interface for end-users to easily access the features through common APIs.

Cloud computing solutions and justifications
Software as a service or SaaS cloud model willprovide the users with access to a vendor-based cloud software system. There is no requirement to install the application on local devices as the application resides on a remote cloud location which can be accessed through an API or web. So, with this application, the university can store, collaborate and also secure university data. Data remains secure in the cloud, therefore with any kind of equipment failure, there is no loss of data and the utilization of resources can be scaled depending on the need of the university(Njenga et al., 2019). Applying this cloud modelsolves the major issues of the students of the university to easily access applications, online libraries, records and data from any Internet-connected devices at any time virtually from anywhere in the world. Moving to a SaaS platform will not require the university to update any kind of IT infrastructure and its component and also save the university maintenance cost. For the university to balance both demands for growth and budget cuts, SaaS solutions can revolutionise the business processes of Calcutta university. Student corners, faculty corners, e-learning systems, financial processes, email, digital library, admission processes, classroom management systems, student life cycle and information systems can be easily hosted on SaaS for the purpose of convenience and access for the staff, faculties and students of the university.This can be hosted in the hybrid cloud. Using SaaS will enable the university for overcoming challenges regarding modern learning and teaching resources and the lack of e-learning, flexibility and scalability.

Before the university migrates its different processes to the cloud the university needs to set key objectives to achieve its goals. Working upon a strategic alignment will ensure that the university must mandate security investments and project services in the cloud and are executed in a manner to achieve the established objectives and goals of the university for improving operational financial performances, easy access to data and having digital storage of data. At the same time university is required to work on a value delivery system that will help him maintain operationalize define the required security functions aligned with necessary tactical and strategic representation and can be charged with responsibility for maximising the business value that the university wants to create from the pursuit of migrating to the cloud. With the movement to the cloud, the security initiatives must be taken seriously to measure the effectiveness to understand key risk indicators and mitigate such risks to yield desirable results that will progressively demonstrate a reduction in risk over time. Therefore, it becomes extremely important for the university to establish a practical operating model to understand the performance in managing various security operations within the cloud which will include proper operationalization and definition of due processesinvolving appropriate roles and responsibilities with the right utilization of relevant tools to increase overall effectiveness and efficiency of the university (Infante-Moro, Infante-Moro and Gallardo-Pérez2020).

Implementing SaaS in the university is beneficial with the electronic delivery of materials virtual classes and online programs. Cloud computing assignmentapps and storage systems will minimise the need for the university to have physical storage and they will be able to increase the geographic reach because the students now can access any learning material from any location. SaaS providers will already have project management and staff expertise that will be required to prepare a solution to fit the purpose therefore the university will not have to struggle to assemble a highly-skilled workforce to prepare for cloud computing. Since the university does not have a dedicated IT team it will become extremely difficult for the university management to manage complex databases and project roadmap. This will increase countless challenges during the course of development which can be avoided with the university moving to SaaS as a model. The interfaces will be similar and easier to learn and navigate which will induce an intuitive experience that will contribute to higher adoption rates among the members of the university. SaaSensures that all its users are on the same version which eliminates any kind of software discrepancies. The same features, functionalities and accessibility are available through cloud-based when operated from different devices or operating systems.There is no storage issue as data will be shifted to the cloud which will clean up clunky storage spaces within the campus of the university which can be used for other purposes. Data will be fully protected from any kind of disaster as it will be backed up for easy access at any point in time. The cloud model will also provide enhanced security with constant updates and security patches with data transmission being encrypted using SSL and SFTP. System maintenance is included in licensing fees, as well as automatic updates without service interruption. Lastly,the SaaS cloud model can be updated quickly because of the speed and flexibility of this type of Cloud computing assignment projects.

Cloud computing solution issues
Ethical issues: Data privacy, security and ownership in cloud services fall into the grey areas of law because there is no stringent regulation or legal framework that enforces policies in the cloud environment. Therefore, in such cases, there’s a high chance that the data stored by the university in the cloud vendors might get reached and there can be a legal responsibility once the data is compromised. Moving university data into the cloud will have critical information about their students which will involve addresses, contact numbers, credentials, reports and multiple certificates which if breached can cause or hurt the reputation of the student and the university. Ethical concerns also lie if there is no effective control available in assisting issues that involve regulation of third parties cloud service vendors and offering data backup services. The other challenge also lies in how the technology is assessed therefore creating data privacy and confidentiality concerns. Virtual machines on the Internet are used as a provision for deploying such services and therefore proper authorization is required while accessing any account in the cloud else it will create vulnerabilities which can be taken advantage of to delete or cause an attack. There is a high chance of tension being created because of accountability and privacy issues and therefore it is important to establish what is being recorded and have proper authenticated means to access the records. This will enforce ethical rules in accessing the cloud and prevent any kind of unauthorised access to student information and circulation of the same by new forms of dissemination through social media networks. Lastly, the university can face a vendor lock-in if the university later decides to move from the current cloud vendor to another cloud vendor. With cloud vendors providing different platforms it can get tough for the university management to move resources from one cloud to another. The university does not have properly trained IT staff that will help in operating, integrating and migrating services to the cloud. Thus, this raises extremely high-security issues as the university lacks resources.

Cloud computing assignmentGovernance issues: The goal of cloud governments is always to ensure data security with the smooth operation of the cloud system and proper management of various risks. As the university moves from a traditional model to advanced technology, there will be challenges in framing and incorporating the hierarchy of executive mandates, operational practices, matrix, structure and performance expectations while implementing and optimising the business value in the cloud. The major governance issues at the university have a chance of facing duplication of data or efforts between different departments of the universityand also in the understanding of security investments yielding the right returns for the university. New security issues might arise while deploying the cloud system withinthe university with less control and access. They can be also issues with poor integration within the cloud system within the university. Given the recorded and stored data are extremely high, it becomes important to ensure data security system integration and asset deployment in a properly planned management and considered. Another expected cloud governance challenge or issue that the university can face is a lack of embedded management control in operational procedures and processes of the cloud. If these security processes are not properly and effectively embedded into the operational procedures for the very purpose of reducing and optimising risks, this can result in the rise of multiple additional risks which might not be apparent to the university,thus creating complex challenges for the university. But if managed well, the initiative will ensure that this cloud environment meets with university policies, compliance obligations and the right security practices.

Maintenance issues: cloud maintenance requires implementing a comprehensive measure to risk management compliance and data governance. This is important as automation is the crucial purpose of providing visibility into the risk and security of various workflows to maintain the best compliance practices. The maintenance issue lies in keeping the confidential data of the students and other records secure and safe. Utilization of cloud resources highly increases the risk of data breaches therefore using proper security tools and also adopting a culture within the university will help in upholding data security in a discrete. The second maintenance issue that the university might be facing is interoperability where there’s a chance of being locked in service. There can be challenges to freely port in and out of the cloud as it is not possible for lock-in periods. Therefore, it is expected for the university to have a proper contract with the cloud service provider for the need to be able to integrate the requirements with their on-premise information technology operations. Lastly,this Cloud computing assignment observes the on-demand nature of the cloud and scalability of cloud services will impact the university to predict and define costs as there is a significant challenge in the cost of operation adoption and migration to cloud services.

Security issues: There are multiple security issues that the university can face when implementing cloud and migrating different processes to the cloud. The chief issue ismisconfiguration of cloud security settings which is the major cause of cloud data breaches. Multiple factors contribute to this as the infrastructure is designed to be easily usable for sharing and collecting data which makes it difficult for the organization to ensure authorised access only. The second major problem is that since the university is moving to a third-party cloud vendor, the university will not have complete control and visibility over the infrastructure meaning they are required to rely on the security controls that are provided by the selected cloud vendor for securing and configuring deployment process. This increases the risk of unauthorised access as the cloud was deployedoutside the network perimeter and is directly accessible from the Internet which makes it extremely easy for attackers to gain unauthorised access to the resources. Even if there is an improper configuration of security or a compromised network of access, this potentially increases the risk of an attack without the knowledge of the university. Multiple applications provided by the cloud service provider also create issues when the user does not secure the interface for their infrastructure as documentation can be redesigned by cyber attackers to identify to exfiltrate confidential data from the universities cloud environment.

Implementation process
There is ample work to be done with the implementationCloud computing assignment projects. The university must investigate cloud vendors before choosing one with proper security measures and the kind of infrastructure configuration should be thoroughly investigated. The plan for security events provided by the cloud service provider must detail out responsibilities and actions which will be taken in the event of a security breach and the university has the responsibility to thoroughly analyse and understand the criteria to ensure that they are in line with the required standards. The very first step of the implementation process requires planning with proper decision to adopt the cloud technology and overseeing the cloud project, employing IT team members who will provide advice based on the current situation to identify the various disadvantages and advantages of adopting cloud computing in the university. Secondly choosing the right deployment model is the key to having a successful migration to the cloud as each of the models has its strengths and weaknesses. Understanding the requirements and matching them up with the deliverables of the model will ensure that the right model is selected keeping in mind the utilization of resources which will enhance scalability, flexibility, agility and efficiency of the current business processes of the university. Once these processes are done it is very important to negotiate the SLA. The SLA is an important document which binds the contract between the cloud service provider and the university. Therefore, it is required that should be negotiated and agreed upon by the management of the university and the respective vendor before the cloud deal is signed. Within the negotiation, there should be agreements on the planned downtime for the vendor to do maintenance and updates which will have the least impact on the records of the university that would be stored in the cloud. Besides the mentioned service cost other hidden caused within the documents for any kind of extra charges with proper terms and conditions that must be properly stated by the university you avoid any kind of misunderstanding with the vendor in the future. It should also be noted that there should be agreement on the fact that they would be an immediate data recovery plan in case of any disaster that might risk the data stored in the cloud. Once these processes are completed the chosen deployment model is to be hosted on the service delivery model and the mapping process is laid out. Lastly we observes on this Cloud computing assignmentthe entire process is successfully integrated which makes users realise the full potential of the cloud investment. Any issue within the integration process of the cloud with existing on-premise applications could result in other complications in the future and therefore must be checked and tested to harmonize processes across the hybrid model.

In brief, the important factors determining the successful implementation of cloud services are as follows:
Storage:Scalability and flexibility of storage must be available from the respected vendor which will prevent any kind of storage issues in the future. The same is required to be thoroughly discussed with the vendor when purchasing such a service and whether the license can be negotiated or extended according to the need of the university in the future.

Security: When the application is on a server which is owned by the cloud computing service provider, it can be easily accessed by everyone which increases security risks. Therefore, security and data protocols must be implemented and discussed with the service provider to ensure complete protection of data and applications. Speed and performance: Performance must be high as resources are placed away from the users in a decentralized system compared to the traditional system of the university. This has a chance for impairment in performance except for the fact about how the management is on the internal server itself. Speed and performance must be accessed before finalizing the deal.

Conclusion
Migrating to cloud computing will be a paradigm shift for Calcutta university in how the university will be able to deliver highly reliable and scalable services for the student’s faculties and other stars in a manner which will be significantly more cost-effective and agile compared to the university’s previous manual models. The university will be able to adapt quickly and understand the benefits of the improved business agility by utilization of cloud components and services which will greatly reduce capital expenditure,and highly improve work efficiency, data management and time components. Therefore, it can be said that the university will highly benefit from taking the advantage of implementing Cloud computing assignment project to improve the educational environment as well as secure data and facilitate better means of access with proper authorisation.

Reference
Agrawal, S., 2021, February. A survey on recent applications of Cloud computing in education: Covid-19 perspective. In Journal of Physics: Conference series (Vol. 1828, No. 1, p. 012076). IOP Publishing.Cloud computing assignment
Bhardwaj, A.K., Garg, L., Garg, A. and Gajpal, Y., 2021. E-learning during covid-19 outbreak: cloud computing adoption in Indian public universities. Computers, Materials, & Continua, pp.2471-2492.
Bora, U.J. and Ahmed, M., 2013. E-learning using cloud computing. International Journal of Science and Modern Engineering, 1(2), pp.9-12.
Bulla, C., Hunshal, B. and Mehta, S., 2016. Adoption of cloud computing in education system: A survey. International Journal of Engineering Science, Cloud computing assignment6375.
Infante-Moro, A., Infante-Moro, J.C. and Gallardo-Pérez, J., 2020, October. Key factors in the implementation of Cloud Computing as a service and communication tool in universities. In Eighth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (pp. 631-636).
Kamaludin, N., Juanda, E.A. and Abdullah, A.G., 2022, March. Utilization of Cloud Computing for Learning in the Pandemic Era of Covid 19. In 4th International Conference on Innovation in Engineering and Vocational Education (ICIEVE 2021) (pp. 44-50). Atlantis Press. Njenga, K., Garg, L., Bhardwaj, A.K., Prakash, V. and Bawa, S., 2019. The cloud computing adoption in higher learning institutions in Kenya: Hindering factors and recommendations for the way forward. Telematics and Informatics,Cloud computing assignment 38, pp.225-246. Rashid, A. and Chaturvedi, A., 2019. Cloud computing characteristics and services: a brief review. International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering, 7(2), pp.421-426.
Sabi, H.M., Uzoka, F.M.E., Langmia, K., Njeh, F.N. and Tsuma, C.K., 2018. A cross-country model of contextual factors impacting cloud computing adoption at universities in sub-Saharan Africa. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(6), pp.1381-1404.
Srivastava, P. and Khan, R., 2018. A review paper on cloud computing. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 8(6), pp.17-20.
Sunyaev, A., 2020. Cloud computing. In Internet computing (pp. 195-236). Springer, Cham.
Yadav, K., 2014. Role of cloud computing in education. International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 2(2), Cloud computing assignmentpp.3108-3112.