Preparing a PowerPoint Briefing for SoftArc Engineering Board
Office automation refers to the hardware, software and activities that enable digitalizing of information and data processing and communication tasks within an organization.
SoftArc Engineering can use the following two approaches to providing office automation to their staff.
- Public cloud approach – whereby storage, hardware as well as the network is not dedicated to a single organization or client
- Private cloud approach – this is where the cloud service is not shared among users and thus it is dedicated to a single client.
It is recommended that SoftArc Engineering should choose Public cloud approach
The primary consideration for a business when selecting an approach is security. When using a public cloud deployment, internal and external access can be restricted through means such as usage of firewall technologies for external threats protection.
This can be better achieved through systems that deal with intrusion detection and prevention. Correct implementation of a public cloud can guarantee security just like the private cloud does. Therefore, when transitioning to the cloud, a background check of the hosting company is necessary in order to be able to ascertain their security levels as well as their compliance requirements.
Considering the plan by SoftArc Engineering to provide all their civil engineering staff with the ability to access office automation, a public cloud is best suited for this task due to its flexibility and reduced expenses in the long term.
SoftArc adoption of public cloud is more preferable due to the nature of applications they might use in the cloud. Also considering that it is a civil engineering company, there may be needed to install and run in the cloud software specific to civil engineers e.g. AutoCAD.
This will be made easier by the fact that one can pay only when he/she is using the application or pay as you go. Therefore costs remain low. Also the service provider is the one who is in charge of managing the infrastructure as well as its maintenance and seeing to it that it is optimally functioning without downtime.
Due to the flexibility of the public cloud, it is almost infinitely scalable coupled by the ability to pay-as-you-go. There is no additional hardware investment even if there is an increase in the number of employees.
Difference between locally hosted infrastructure and infrastructure provided by an IaaS provider
In many firms, there is a hardware purchase cycle that arrives after every three years. This is necessitated by the need to upgrade hardware due to it becoming obsolete as a result of evolving and changing business trends (Wagner, 2013).
Infrastructure is continuously upgraded to ensure that the hardware provides the optimal performance. Upgrades are seamless as they do not cause disruptions (Wagner, 2013)
Two Approaches to Providing Office Automation to Staff
In most cases, software costs keep on incurring as more staff are added to a firm since additional staff forces the firm to purchase more licenses.
There are flexible licensing options that are provided either per user or per account on a monthly basis (Wagner, 2013).
Factors and issues when migrating to IaaS
One of the main reasons organizations move to the cloud is time. Regardless of time as well as location, they are able to access their files at any time of the day. Remote servers should always be running and available all the time to facilitate access to accounts belonging to users of a cloud service
Every organization that considers moving to the IaaS should have a disaster recovery plan. This involves liaising with the IT department in order to know the supposed steps to be adopted in the event of the cloud server experiences a downtime and how the organization will manage in the event of disaster recovery.
This involves consideration of the available customization options available for both the organization and its customers. Before purchasing IaaS, an organization ought to know if there are costs that may be incurred in the event of a desire or need to customize a solution in the IaaS in order to its suit needs.
The supplier of the cloud infrastructure should at least be free from errors, poor security as well as ensure continuous availability of power. The transition to the cloud needs to be smooth with emerging issues being sorted as fast as possible without incurring costs. Therefore an organization seeking for cloud services should perform a thorough background check on the provider.
Since a functional and well performing organization experiences growth, it should put into consideration the cost of scalability in terms of storage space, speed, flexibility and the extra features that can be scaled. This consideration should be checked in the initial phase when the organization is evaluating the cloud service provider to adopt.
One needs to know the location where their data will be housed in the cloud. This means one needs to know the physical location of the cloud servers belonging to the hosting service provider. The organization should conduct a thorough check on the contract and terms of agreement in order to know how safe their data is. This ensures that in the event of data loss, action will be taken to recover it in the shortest time possible for the sake of continuity of the business.
Benefits and Issues of Each Approach
Of all the issues that people consider when moving to the cloud, privacy and security are usually the greatest concerns that people consider most. To be absolutely safe, one needs to ensure that the cloud service provider is verified and certified including looking for customer reviews concerning the service provider. This ensures that you can at least trust the service provider with your intellectual property as well as securing data, transaction and communication activities that may be involved (Finger, 2016).
Differences between IaaS, PaaS and SaaS
- Software as a Service – this is way of availing applications to users such that instead of installing them locally on a computer, the said applications are installed remotely and they are simply accessed over the internet (Ganore, 2013).
- Platform as a Service – this is a cloud model that provides usage of applications through the internet. PaaS prevents users from installing hardware and/or software for executing or developing an application (Rouse, 2015).
- Infrastructure as a Service – this is a type of cloud computing providing various types of resources over the internet such as desktop virtualization and also automating tasks (Ganore).
The most appropriate model for SharePoint would be SharePoint is collaboration as well as a document management platform which is accessed through a browser. It is mostly used for document sharing.
By adopting SaaS, one avoids the labor and costs of setting a server room, a mainframe as well as software installation. This is performed and taken care of by the hosting service provider.
Software as a service providers are now focusing on user experience. Growth of mobile devices and adoption of online applications has contributed to an increasing level of expectation of great quality design and ease of use of an application. This has ensured that majority of the hosting service providers will host those applications that focus in providing a great and enhanced user experience.
Provided that the user has a good internet connection and a browser, he/she can access the document management system anywhere since it is not limited to location. Since SharePoint is browser based, a good internet connection will ensure an unlimited access to the files and documents hosted in the application.
Having latest and greatest features makes document sharing and work to be more efficient. SaaS encourages innovation by providing avenues for adding new functionalities as well as new ways to collaborate and distribute information among common users of the SharePoint/SaaS account. Also it’s easier to update as well as fix bugs and patches in the background with users of the software being aware.
A business that hosts its documents on SharePoint using SaaS acquires a competitive edge since this makes it flexible and it can easily deal with change. In SaaS environment, it is easier to set up new user accounts and easily add documents without considering the backend infrastructure since it is easily scalable.
It is possible to integrate SharePoint with other software using SaaS. It can happen without causing any disruption to the activities of the company and its users thus ensuring the access to ones account is seamless. Majority of Software as a Service products contain ready-made tools to help in integration with a user’s most favorite packages.
Summary and Recommendation: Choose the Public Cloud
This greatly reduces costs and usually keeps them consistently low (Buxton, 2015).
Internet connection is required at all times.
One cannot work offline when using SaaS and he/she must be connected to the internet whenever there is a need to use the SaaS.
When using SaaS, all the data and files will be hosted on the server of the cloud service provider. This will be akin to giving someone else you don’t know a total control of your data.
Due to inability to control their data, users of SaaS are usually not sure of how secure their data is. They also do not know the security mechanisms put in place to protect their data as well as the recovery mechanisms in place in the event of data loss. They can only rely on the service level agreements or by the words of the service provider to have assurance that their data is safe.
With SaaS, a business will keep on paying their provider in order to access their services failure to which there is no access and may even risk losing their software services. If the hosting provider decides to change the payment rates, the business subscribed for the SaaS will have no other choice but to conform to the new increase in charges.
It has become difficult for SaaS customers to find a good method to integrate applications made by other vendors to theirs.
Since accessing a SaaS account involves use of an email and password in most of the cases, using an unsecured computer may expose the user to the risk of a cyber attack through malware that harvests passwords and usernames in an unsecured network. Maintaining control of emails and documents stored on the cloud is more difficult compared to when they are stored locally on the server (Menken, 2009).
References
Bigelow, S. (2011). Advantages and drawbacks to public cloud services. SearchDataCenter. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/tip/Advantages-and-drawbacks-to-public-cloud-services
Buxton, A. (2015). The reasons why SaaS will remain the dominant cloud model. TechRadar. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cloud-services/the-reasons-why-saas-will-remain-the-dominant-cloud-model-1284282
Erel, O. (2014). Important Concepts of Cloud Computing Middleware Architecture – SaaS Addict. SaaS Addict. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://saasaddict.walkme.com/important-concepts-cloud-computing-middleware-architecture/
Finger, F. (2016). Factors to Consider When Moving to Cloud. Percento Technologies. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://percentotech.com/factors-to-consider-when-moving-to-cloud/
Ganore, P. (2013). CLOUD COMPUTING: BASIC CONCEPTS | Cloud Computing Basics. Esds.co.in. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://www.esds.co.in/blog/cloud-computing-basic-concepts/#sthash.LQNd9SiJ.dpbs
Menken, I. (2009). Common SaaS problems that occur after implementation. SearchITChannel. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/Common-SaaS-problems-that-occur-after-implementation
Public and Private Clouds – Pros and Cons. (2015). Learn.infusionsoft.com. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://learn.infusionsoft.com/growth/planning-strategy/the-pros-and-cons-of-public-and-private-clouds
Rouse, M. (2015). What is Platform as a Service (PaaS)? – Definition from WhatIs.com. SearchCloudComputing. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Platform-as-a-Service-PaaS
Seshachala, S. (2015). Cloud Computing Architecture: an overview. Cloud Academy Blog. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://cloudacademy.com/blog/cloud-computing-architecture-an-overview/
Strickland, J. How Cloud Computing Works. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing1.htm
Wagner, H. (2013). How Does IaaS Compare to On Premise?. Overthewire.com.au.
Retrieved 2 April 2017, from https://www.overthewire.com.au/news/how-does-iaas-compare-to-on-premise
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