Cloud Networks and Designs

Cloud Computing offers’ many types of configuration and benefits.

• Private - Built by internal staff at an internal data center for exclusive use by the organization
• Hybrid - where applications, storage and services reside both internally, and externally
• Public - Application and storage are hosted outside of the organization’s environment.
• Community - Design for a specific organizations or group

Types of Cloud environments:

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Identity as a Service (IDaaS)

Two main types of virtual cloud structures

Virtualization allows different operating systems running separate applications on one server while still using the same physical resources. and a hypervisor is the software that manages this virtual environment.

• Type 1 Hypervisor (also called bare metal or native)

Is installed directly on top of a physical server and its underlying hardware. There is no software or any operating system in between, hence the name bare-metal hypervisor

• Type 2 Hypervisor (also known as hosted hypervisors)

It runs inside of an operating system of a physical host machine. Type 2 is a hosted hypervisor and runs on top of whatever operating system that is installed (Windows, Linux, macOS).

Benefits and Risks:

Benefits:

Cost effectiveness: No need to keep updating or managing software you have to buy licenses for each year?

Time saving: It brings communication to a whole new level between Users, Vendors, and Business Partners

Agility and flexibility: Easy access to the latest in technology for user and clients

File sharing and Storage: Users can upload documents to multimedia presentations, letting them interact in real-time

Risks:

Vendor Lock-In: There are different types of platforms and you may be locked into a system and software design that can be costly to change.

Loss of Governance: Depending on the type of business you have, just how much control are you willing to give up?

Compliance problems: If you have a business that needs to track key information that a government requires of you be it local, state or federal. Example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a federal law that established sweeping auditing and financial regulations for public companies.

 Network Mismanagement: Does the company you choose have the skills and staff to keep your cloud up and running?

Facility Security: something most don’t think about till it happens.

•  Physical Security and your Cloud provider's facility
•  Restricted Areas
•  Intrusion Detection
•  Fire prevention
•  Fencing
•  Guards

Data Protection:

Your data is king and what you upload to a cloud might be hacked. Some users suggest that you encrypt all data you upload to the cloud so no one can scan or read it. In addition, the Hypervisor is software and there is a number of hacks focused on hacking the hypervisor itself. Because if you get control of the hypervisor you will not only have access to your data, but everyone else’s data being stored on that server.