Cloud Computing Environment and Its Benefits

The model of cloud computing environment provides a much flexible approach for organizations. The cloud environment helps in providing security, savings of cost and flexible methods of work within the organization. The report discusses on the transitioning of Exchange to an application of cloud-based corporate work sector. In the recent times, there are several cloud-based organizations, which are able to provide services to the organization based on their needs of transitioning to the platform (Xiao, Song & Chen, 2013). The cloud provides several form of secure services. Hence, the shift of important data to the cloud platform would be helpful in supporting the services of the organization.

Based on the decision of the organization for shifting to the cloud based platform, there are some of the aspects, which should be taken into consideration. Some of the cloud based organizations, which needs to be evaluated are:  

The Primary Cloud Function of Apple iCloud

The primary function of iCloud is to store the important documents, files, photos, videos, music and applications and thus keeping them updated across every devices. iCloud would also allow the permissibility to locate a lost device.

The advantages of iCloud over other similar organizations is that the organization provides unlimited capability of storage across all devices. The service is also extremely handy and can be easily synced. They also provide high level of encryption for the safety of users (Oestreicher, 2014).  

The Cloud Computing Service Model

The iCloud make use of the SaaS based cloud application.

The Deployment Model

The Apple iCloud employs the SaaS method of deployment. The iOS users are able to activate their devices and configure their basic settings. iCloud represents a software based product as these services are primarily delivered over the internet and empowers users for a wide range of services.

iCloud secures the information with the help of encryption during the transit of data. The data stored within iCloud is encrypted with the use of secure form of tokens based on authentication. iCloud also uses end-to-end encryption for sensitive information (Fernando, Loke & Rahayu, 2013).

The Primary Cloud Function of AWS

The AWS offers a wide set of storage, global compute, analytics, database, application and deployment services that would help the organization in providing lower costs of IT, faster operations and scale operations.

The advantages of AWS is that it helps in enabling of companies for storage, shared computing and other access to resources in a fast process and thus operating their personal IT infrastructure (Tärneberg, Chandrasekaran & Humphrey, 2016).

Evaluation of Primary Cloud Functions of iCloud, AWS, Google Docs, Windows Azure, and Salesforce.com

The Cloud Computing Service Model

The AWS uses Elastic Compute Service or EC2, which is based on IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) (Varia & Mathew, 2014).

Amazon AWS provides the public cloud deployment model. This cloud model depicts the cloud infrastructure, which would be located and could be accessed within the public network. The public cloud model provides an expedient way to scale the project depending on the usage of services (Lakshminarayanan, Kumar & Raju, 2013).  

The AWS provides several form of security services and capabilities in order to improvise control and privacy within network access. These services includes network firewalls that are inbuilt within Amazon VPC and different web application firewall (Sultan, 2014).

The Primary Cloud Function of Google Docs

The cloud functions of Google Docs includes an environment based on server less execution for the purpose of building and thus connecting with the services offered by cloud. The functions of Google Docs includes importing, creation, editing and updating of spreadsheets and documents.

The advantages of Google Docs is that they provide fast accessibility, control of version, flexibility, ease of corporate communication, high ROI and lower costs.  

Google Docs uses the SaaS model as a suite of productivity, which offers free access over the various applications (Tan & Kim, 2015).

The Deployment Model

The Google Docs employs the public cloud deployment model. The model helps in creating configuration files and flexible templates.

The data stored within Google Docs are stored within secure data centres. The data stored within Google is encrypted during the transfer of files on to the cloud platform. Google also provides two-step verification within their accounts, which enables an additional layer of protection.

The Primary Cloud Function of Windows Azure

The functions of Azure is that they offer service based on server less computing that would be hosted on to the public cloud of Microsoft Azure. These are designed for accelerating and thus simplifying the development of applications.

The prime advantages of Azure is that they provide different forms of internal and customer applications, flexible computing power and storage facilities within the cloud (Katyal & Mishra, 2014).

The Cloud Computing Service Model

Windows Azure provides the IaaS, SaaS and PaaS models of cloud computing.

Windows Azure offers two forms of deployment models that includes the Azure Resource Manager and “classic” deployment model. The Azure Resource Manager would enable the users for creating groups based on relatable services such that coupled resources could be deployed, monitored and managed together. On the other hand, within the classic deployment model, each of the resources would be manageable individually (Gandhi & Kumbharana, 2014).  

Benefits of AWS for Transitioning to Cloud Computing

The Microsoft Azure Security Center is responsible for granting permissions to different cloud administrators. The security aspects also include major providers of security such as Cisco, Check Point and F5 Networks. The main approach would be based on policy management, detection of threats and security monitoring.

The Primary Cloud Function of Salesforce.com

The functions of Salesforce is to manage the various activities and processes of sales. They also include administration within marketing services, automation, customer support and service and enterprise social networking.

The advantages of the cloud operations within Salesforce.com is that they enhance the improvement of information processing within organization, enhance methods of communication, improvement of customer services, security of cloud servers and greater efficiency within the cloud services.

Salesforce.com makes use of SaaS cloud computing service model as well as the PaaS model.

Salesforce.com employs the Amazon Web Services as their preferred mode of public cloud infrastructure within their cloud environment. With the help of this deployment model, the service provider companies would be able to offer several resources that would be needed to be managed and thus administer pool resources. The companies are able to offer resources as a form of service at free of charges or as a pay per use basis with the help of internet connection. They would be able to deliver their core services that would include App Cloud, Analytics Cloud, Community Cloud and Sales Cloud (Salesforce Selects Amazon Web Services as Preferred Public Cloud Infrastructure Provider, 2018).

The Salesforce.com makes use of high level of security for the purpose of protecting applications and data. They make use of the best authentication scenarios in order to prevent unauthorized users for accessing to the data located within the cloud environment. They also implement Shield Platform Encryption in order to add a new layer of security during the preservation of functionality based on critical platforms. The cloud environment also makes use of such algorithms that would be able to understand and thus guard the systems against vulnerabilities within the code during the development of custom applications (Almorsy, Grundy & Müller, 2016).

Conclusion

Based on the discussion, it could be concluded that the use of a secure cloud environment is very much beneficial for different organizations. The report discusses on the fact that an organization would be shifting their services on to the cloud platform for better implementation of services. The report discusses on the various aspects of different organizations who make use of cloud environment. Based on the several aspects of different organizations, it could be recommended that the concerned company should choose the Amazon Web Services for the phase of transition. The AWS platform supports low cost and secure services. The AWS cloud would also be able to deliver better outcomes for the organization by accessing various servers within a short time-span. The AWS has 15 years of experience within the delivering of global infrastructure at an extremely large scale. Hence, the organization would be benefitted from the capabilities of infrastructure management and the necessary skills, which would continue to improve based on the innovations within the sector. 

References 

Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., & Müller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.

Fernando, N., Loke, S. W., & Rahayu, W. (2013). Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future generation computer systems, 29(1), 84-106.

Gandhi, V. A., & Kumbharana, C. (2014). Comparative study of Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure cloud architecture. International Journal of Advanced Networking & Applications, 117-123.

Katyal, M., & Mishra, A. (2014). A comparative study of load balancing algorithms in cloud computing environment. arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.6918.

Lakshminarayanan, R., Kumar, B., & Raju, M. (2013). Cloud computing benefits for educational institutions. arXiv preprint arXiv:1305.2616.

Oestreicher, K. (2014). A forensically robust method for acquisition of iCloud data. Digital Investigation, 11, S106-S113.

Salesforce Selects Amazon Web Services as Preferred Public Cloud Infrastructure Provider. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/05/salesforce-aws-public-cloud-infrastructure.html

Sultan, N. (2014). Making use of cloud computing for healthcare provision: Opportunities and challenges. International Journal of Information Management, 34(2), 177-184.

Tan, X., & Kim, Y. (2015). User acceptance of SaaS-based collaboration tools: a case of Google Docs. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 28(3), 423-442.

Tärneberg, W., Chandrasekaran, V., & Humphrey, M. (2016, December). Experiences creating a framework for smart traffic control using AWS IOT. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (pp. 63-69). ACM.

Varia, J., & Mathew, S. (2014). Overview of amazon web services. Amazon Web Services.

Xiao, Z., Song, W., & Chen, Q. (2013). Dynamic resource allocation using virtual machines for cloud computing environment. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst., 24(6), 1107-1117.