CCA 610
Project 3: Cloud Provider Evaluation
University of Maryland Global Campus
CCA 610 9040 Cloud Services and Technologies (2208)
Introduction
Cloud computing platforms and their services play a key role in the successful running of
organization’s IT infrastructures. Before an organization migrates to the cloud, it is important
that all factors essential to its infrastructure are carefully evaluated, so as to make the choice of the
provider that is best suited for the organization. A detailed comparison analysis of two major cloud
vendors, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure architectures. Their architectures,
capabilities, services, deployments, and pricing will be explored prior to making a recommendation.
A cloud computing architecture consists of front end-users, back end-storage, network(s),
delivered through the cloud to form a system (“Understanding Cloud Computing Architecture”,
n.d.). The choice of an organization’s architecture in the cloud environment is generally
implemented based on principles of scalability, performance, security, availability, ease of
management, all which would ultimately optimize cost. After review of various cloud deployment
architectures, the architecture deemed most fit for Ballot Online is the 3-tier architecture with Load
Balancing, two application servers, and two database servers forming a Master-Slave Database duo.
Users can access the cloud resources through the public internet, meanwhile databases would be
accessed through a private Local Area Network (LAN) and Virtual Private Network (VPN) gateway
to ensure.
The best strategy BallotOnline can use to migrate to a suitable cloud architecture is through
system imaging. When porting to a cloud environment, this method is able to mirror the exact
applications, operating system, and data found on the disk storage, as well as its
,configurations security (“Cloud Migration Strategies”, n.d.). It is important that this “mirroring”
is done securely to prevent the system from being compromised.
Architecture Deployment Feasibility
To meet the BallotOnline business requirements of expanding the IT infrastructure and
lowering IT costs at the same time I have a proposed cloud solution that will meet these needs.
BallotOnline has an existing web application that is written using the popular open-source
LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) software suite and the PHP application. This means that
the application will be easily portable to any of the Cloud vendor solutions we choose. We also
need to be concerned with application and data security, encryption and separation of data for
compliance overseas. This configuration must handle increased loads during election times in
different regions and data storage due to compliance of data regulations. I believe we need to
have similar cloud architectures for US and EU but separated due to the different US and EU
government requirements. Below configuration is US Cloud Architecture.
, This configuration utilizes internet gateway and firewall to secure the entry to the application
servers. The traffic is then load-balanced to direct requests to application servers based on server
use and round-robin queuing. Application servers are auto-scaled to handle additional load on
high volume voting days. A NAT gateway is placed between the application server and Master
database server to ensure that only trusted traffic can pass between them. Database servers have
a master and slave with private network connection for replication and synchronization purposes
to ensure fault tolerance. Two US datacenters are in the configuration one the East Coast and the
West Coast which will ensure high availability and disaster recovery. Master databases are
replicated between both datacenters thru VPN connection to avoid cyber-attacks. Below is a
similar configuration for BallotOnline business in EU region.
The architectural elements most important for BallotOnline deployments are auto-scaling,
load balancing, database replication, fault tolerance, and security zone. This will be in line with
Project 3: Cloud Provider Evaluation
University of Maryland Global Campus
CCA 610 9040 Cloud Services and Technologies (2208)
Introduction
Cloud computing platforms and their services play a key role in the successful running of
organization’s IT infrastructures. Before an organization migrates to the cloud, it is important
that all factors essential to its infrastructure are carefully evaluated, so as to make the choice of the
provider that is best suited for the organization. A detailed comparison analysis of two major cloud
vendors, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure architectures. Their architectures,
capabilities, services, deployments, and pricing will be explored prior to making a recommendation.
A cloud computing architecture consists of front end-users, back end-storage, network(s),
delivered through the cloud to form a system (“Understanding Cloud Computing Architecture”,
n.d.). The choice of an organization’s architecture in the cloud environment is generally
implemented based on principles of scalability, performance, security, availability, ease of
management, all which would ultimately optimize cost. After review of various cloud deployment
architectures, the architecture deemed most fit for Ballot Online is the 3-tier architecture with Load
Balancing, two application servers, and two database servers forming a Master-Slave Database duo.
Users can access the cloud resources through the public internet, meanwhile databases would be
accessed through a private Local Area Network (LAN) and Virtual Private Network (VPN) gateway
to ensure.
The best strategy BallotOnline can use to migrate to a suitable cloud architecture is through
system imaging. When porting to a cloud environment, this method is able to mirror the exact
applications, operating system, and data found on the disk storage, as well as its
,configurations security (“Cloud Migration Strategies”, n.d.). It is important that this “mirroring”
is done securely to prevent the system from being compromised.
Architecture Deployment Feasibility
To meet the BallotOnline business requirements of expanding the IT infrastructure and
lowering IT costs at the same time I have a proposed cloud solution that will meet these needs.
BallotOnline has an existing web application that is written using the popular open-source
LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) software suite and the PHP application. This means that
the application will be easily portable to any of the Cloud vendor solutions we choose. We also
need to be concerned with application and data security, encryption and separation of data for
compliance overseas. This configuration must handle increased loads during election times in
different regions and data storage due to compliance of data regulations. I believe we need to
have similar cloud architectures for US and EU but separated due to the different US and EU
government requirements. Below configuration is US Cloud Architecture.
, This configuration utilizes internet gateway and firewall to secure the entry to the application
servers. The traffic is then load-balanced to direct requests to application servers based on server
use and round-robin queuing. Application servers are auto-scaled to handle additional load on
high volume voting days. A NAT gateway is placed between the application server and Master
database server to ensure that only trusted traffic can pass between them. Database servers have
a master and slave with private network connection for replication and synchronization purposes
to ensure fault tolerance. Two US datacenters are in the configuration one the East Coast and the
West Coast which will ensure high availability and disaster recovery. Master databases are
replicated between both datacenters thru VPN connection to avoid cyber-attacks. Below is a
similar configuration for BallotOnline business in EU region.
The architectural elements most important for BallotOnline deployments are auto-scaling,
load balancing, database replication, fault tolerance, and security zone. This will be in line with
