NMIMS Global Access

School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE)

Course: Cloud Computing
Internal Assignment Applicable for June 2021 Examination

Q.1: You are invited by the Government of Botswana to advise on deployment of cloud for
their e-governance services. The Government is very keen to reduce the total cost of
ownership and increase scalability of its e-governance infrastructure. As such, it is
evaluating the use of cloud and the right choice for the deployment model. You have been
asked to provide a brief report explaining pros and cons of each cloud deployment model
for e-governance systems in Botswana.
Ans.
Introduction E-governance with cloud computing offers integration management with
automated problem resolution, manages security end-to-end, and helps budget
based on actual usage of data. At a global level, cloud architectures can benefit
government to reduce duplicate efforts and increase utilisation of resources. This
helps the government going green, reducing pollution and effective waste
management.
Generally, cloud deployment models can be classified on the basis of either
location or the type of service being provided. On the basis of location, cloud
deployment models can be classified as public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud,
and community cloud.
Information system faces too many risks—viruses, hackers, fire, terrorist attacks.
Distributed data centres provide fault tolerance against such disasters. These
centres facilitate robust communication support, self-supervision capability and
real-time visible platform, which will help e-governance application to use and
mange.
Concepts and Types of Pros Cons
Application Cloud
related to the Public Simple and easy: Public Lacks proper controls: The client
question clouds clouds are available as a has no control of data or
service in the internet, they infrastructure. There are issues of
are easy to deploy. data privacy and integrity. The
Cost: Initial investment is service level policies and
very low or nil. compliances are completely
Less time: The IT enforced by the service provider.
resources and services are
available immediately Performance: The performance of
saving time for the the network depends on the speed
company. of the internet connectivity.
No maintenance: The
hardware and networks are Weak on Security: Since the
maintained by the cloud hardware resource is shared
services provider. Internal between multiple users, IT security
IT staffs have no issues are more profound and data
responsibility in is vulnerable to thefts.
maintaining the
infrastructure. Customization: Customization of
No contracts: No long resources or services is not
 term commitment with
service provider because possible.
public clouds are usually
pay-as-you-go models.

Private Controls: Better controls Cost: Costs are substantial in the

clouds for data, users and case of building an on-premise
information assets. private cloud. The running cost
Cost: Initial investment for would include personnel cost and
hardware is very high in periodic hardware upgrade costs.
case of an on-premise In the case of outsourced private
infrastructure. cloud, operating cost will include
Security: The cloud per resource usage and subject to
belongs to a single client. change at the discretion of the
Hence, the infrastructure service provider.
and systems can be
configured to provide high Under-utilization: In some
levels of security. instances the resources subscribed
Superior can be under-utilized. Hence,
Performance: Normally optimizing the utilization of all
private clouds are resources is a challenge.
deployed inside the
firewall of the Capacity ceiling: Due to physical
organization’s intranet hardware limitations with the
which ensures efficiency service provider, there could be a
and good network capacity ceiling to handle only
performance. certain amount of servers or
Easy Customization: The storage.
hardware and other
resources can be Vendor lock-in: This can be a
customized easily by the major impediment in private cloud
company. adoption especially when the
Compliance: Compliance hardware and infrastructure is
is achieved easily in outsourced.
private clouds.

Community Cost effective Data Is Accessible Between

clouds Organizations:
Community cloud is cost Because data is housed in the same
effective because the location, any data stored there
whole cloud is shared might be accessible by others. This
between several can lead to overall security
organizations or a concerns about the rules and
community. regulations to compliance within a
community cloud.
Flexible and Scalable Not a “One-Size-Fits-All”
As a relatively new and unique
The community cloud is cloud deployment, community
 clouds are not a great fit for many
flexible and scalable organizations and should be
because it is compatible looked at on a case-by-case basis.
with every user. It allows It’s unnecessary for small
the users to modify the business, medium businesses, and
documents as per their most large businesses.
needs and requirement. Shared Storage and Bandwidth
Finite data storage and bandwidth
Security is being shared among community
members. It can be challenging to
Community cloud is more prioritize.  
secure than the public
cloud but less secure than
the private cloud.

Sharing infrastructure

Community cloud allows

us to share cloud
resources, infrastructure,
and other capabilities
among various
organizations.
Hybrid Flexibility Difficult to Implement
cloud
One of the main It can indeed be complex to
advantages of the hybrid implement and difficult to
cloud is its flexibility. maintain. For example, setting up
Because this model allows a private cloud can be a
the enterprise to direct its remarkably difficult project in
resources to private and itself since it requires a strong
public cloud computing demand for local infrastructures,
environments quickly, it such as servers, storage, and
becomes easier to evaluate network capabilities.
how to best structure a set
of IT solutions that are In-house Expenses
based on cloud computing.
It actually has the disadvantage of
Scalability and being much more expensive than
Deployment the public cloud. The cost that
accompanies the installation and
The hybrid cloud makes it the maintenance of servers is high.
possible to set up a
modular system according Security Concerns due to 3rd
to your needs. Party Involvement

If you need to perform As the hybrid cloud is a

very large data analytics, combination of both public and
the hybrid cloud provides private clouds. There is no risk of
better resource allocation
and avoids investing in intrusion between neighbors on a
hundreds or even public network, but misuse of the
thousands of servers and infrastructure contracted by
storage devices. another company can put yours at
risk as a successful attack on the
This will allow you to main server opens a breach for
create a cluster, block, or each client’s system.
group of data in the private
cloud and send your data Compatibility and Data
to it. Integration

Speed Compatibility between files used

in the private cloud and the public
Hybrid cloud enables cloud can be a big headache when
organizations to move using a hybrid cloud.
faster to DevOps – a set of
practices for integrating If this is the strategy you are
development, operations, plotting, make sure you have the
and analytic teams. software in place to run all types
of files on both platforms and also
Increased Mobility to convert files for security.

A hybrid cloud can also Because public and private clouds

bring mobility to the have fundamental differences, you
business. As resources need to know what they are
become available over the compatible with.
web to all users, the
company can flex its Therefore, when considering
routines without losing where to store each of these data
competitiveness. or applications, it is essential to
verify how this integration is done.
Increased Data Security
Visibility
Hybrid cloud enhances
system security and With your resources and
reliability by allowing information placed across private
sensitive information to be and public-based cloud network,
stored in a private you sometimes tend to lose sight
environment. Protection of the wholesome view of all the
against physical attacks is information.
enhanced because the
information is divided into This can get much more
multiple data centers. complicated if you’re using
multiple 3rd party cloud providers.

After going through, both the pros

and cons of the hybrid cloud, I’m
sure you must have got some idea
as to whether or not it suits your
 need.
Conclusion
While there are certainly some advantages of setting up private clouds like
enhancing the organisational trust boundaries and lower security and privacy risks,
considering public clouds for various e-governance needs is important. Public
clouds now offer several benefits, including lower cost, scalability and flexibility.
Now that setting up local data centres has become a reality, based on the usage
density, governments can demand the local data centers and insist on obeying the
laws of the land as the public cloud vendors are expanding their operations.

This takes care of issues associated with data sovereignty and geo redundancy.
Since, all data is not critical, it would be wiser and practical to consider a
combination of public and private clouds (what we call as hybrid clouds) and
leveraging the competitive landscape of public clouds. In fact, keeping a smaller
private cloud and larger public cloud makes best sense. Many governments across
the world have already adopted the public clouds and other cloud technologies.

2. Amphora Technologies is a startup being incubated at IIT Madras. It offers K12 e-

Tutoring via cloud. Being a startup, it is unable to afford its own data center. Rather it is
evaluating commercially available technology platforms for cloud computing.
Specifically, it is evaluating (a) whether to opt for IaaS or PaaS, and (b) AWS or Azure.
You are invited to provide a comparison of these choices and recommend the most
suitable combination for them. You may get more details by visiting the web site of these
firms or you can make your own assumptions.
(10 Marks)
Ans.
Introduction IaaS and PaaS
The adoption of cloud computing has quickly become a key
driving force for businesses today, as applications are moved out
of on-premise data centres in a bid to innovate, cut costs and
increase agility.

Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is a model where a third-party

provider hosts and maintains core infrastructure, including
hardware, software, servers and storage on behalf of a customer.
This typically includes the hosting of applications in a highly
scalable environment, where customers are only charged for the
infrastructure they use.

Early concerns over security and data sovereignty have largely

been addressed by the 'big three' public cloud vendors – Amazon
Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud
Platform – with only the most heavily regulated businesses
continuing to tread carefully when it comes to the adoption of
cloud services.
Concepts and SaaS (software-as-a-service) means ready software products that
Application related to are delivered via the Internet on a subscription basis. If we
the question compare SaaS vs PaaS vs IaaS, the first model is the simplest
option to maintain.
Software-as-a-service is the most suitable option in the following
cases:
 Your startup wants to launch an e-commerce project as soon
as possible and does not have time to deal with servers.
 Your cloud-based app will not be used regularly.
 Your short-term project needs fast collaboration.
 Both mobile and web access are required for your app.
PaaS (platform-as-a-service)
As it has been mentioned, SaaS solutions offer businesses ready
products. PaaS (platform-as-a-service) takes it a step further and
provides clients with a cloud environment that allows developing
custom apps. Thus, companies no longer have to invest in building
and maintaining the infrastructure that their applications require.
Let’s discuss in what cases platform-as-a-service solutions can
bring maximum value:
 You specialize in building custom apps or mobile application
development.
 Your organization adopted an Agile mindset. With the PaaS
cloud computing model businesses do not have to worry about
issues associated with rapid development and deployment.
 You need to speed up the collaborative work on a project.
AWS and Azure
Azure is an open source and flexible cloud platform which helps in
development, service hosting, service management, and data
storage. The Azure cloud computing tool hosts web applications
over the internet with the help of Microsoft data centers.

Amazon Web Services is widely used secure cloud services

platform, offering computing power, content delivery, database
storage, and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow.

Advantages of AWS

Here, are significant advantages of adopting AWS cloud services:

 Compute Cloud allows you to increase or decrease storage

according to the need of your organization
 AWS enables you to select an operating system,
programming language, database of your choice.
 Broad & deep service offerings
  Robust partner ecosystem
 Trusted by high-profile customers
 High Transfer Stability
 Minimal information is lost during server and storage
transfer
 Offers more data centers for availability and low latency
 Better DevOps support
 Simpler licensing method
 Stronger support for Bl and analytics

Advantages of Azure

Here, are some major advantages of using Azure cloud services:

 Capability for developers and users to create, maintain and

deploy applications
 Fully scalable cloud computing platform offers open access
across multiple languages, frameworks, and tools
 Total support for Microsoft legacy apps
 Greater awareness of enterprise needs
 Easy one-click migrations in many cases
 Conversion of on-prem licenses to the cloud
 Support for mixed Linux/Windows environments
 Offers inbuilt tool like Azure stack to help the organization
deliver Azure service from the own data center

Disadvantages of AWS

Here, are few drawbacks of Amazon Web Services:

 Less hybrid- cloud-friendly

 AWS elastic load balancer is not equipped to handle as
many requests as it receives
 AWS lacks customer support, so it more suitable for a
technically savvy group of consumers and those companies
who have their inbuild tech support team
 The number of choices offered by AWS is confusing to
those who may not speak the language of technology.
 Incompatible and Weak Hybrid Strategy
 AWS is a less open private cloud. This makes it an
unpopular storage option for sensitive industries like
banking
 AWS has too many products which makes the selection
process much harder

Disadvantages of Azure

The major Drawbacks of Azure cloud services are:

  Customer service is not transparent, and data is hosted
globally. So, if you have data restrictions where it must be
stored in a specific country, at that time you need to
verify/specify with Microsoft
 You will be charged extra for paying as you go
 Azure cloud-based services are full of glitches. To fix these
bugs, you will need to spend additional money
 Less flexibility about non-Windows server platforms, when
compared to AWS

Conclusion Microsoft Azure has increased its market share in the last couple
of years, but not to an extent where there is a real contest between
the two companies at least for the near future.

Moreover, both companies introduce new products, new

integrations, and new pricing structures. Therefore, the final
selection will be depend on the need of your organization.

3. The Top Management of MuchMor Estates is meeting to discuss their plan for a New
CRM Solution. Both the CIO, Mr. Unni and the CFO, Mr. Mishra are of the strong
opinion that the company should implement a Custom On-Premise CRM solution to be
developed by the company’s regular IT Partner. On the other hand, both, Mr Das, Head
of Sales and Ms Dutt, CFO are keen to move to a cloud Cloud-based SaaS CRM solution.
The debate is getting heated as Ms Dutt also recalled past IT system implementation
failures.
a. What arguments can Mr. Unni make in favor of in-house CRM implementation?
(5 Marks)
Ans.
Introduction In house CRM implementation process is run by a corporate entity
for organizational usage. Let’s see an example to better understand
the in-house software development meaning. 
Concepts and Advantages of opting for in house development of CRM for
Application related to MuchMor Estates:
the question  No language/cultural boundaries. It is a team of the
professionals probably from the same country/city as you
are, with the same cultural and language background
working within the same organization. What advantages
does hiring an in-house team give to you? Fewer
boundaries and limitations, face-to-face communications,
and, as a result, a better understanding of what should be
done.
 Deep involvement. It allows you to maximize the
customization of the in-house engineering process for
every minor tech need of your company. You can make
appropriate changes in the development process easily to
adjust the project to your business.
 In-project expertise. Internal specialists master their skills
 in building the project you started and soon become
narrowly focused professionals of the highest level. This
reduces bugs and, in addition, it means that the support will
be straightforward and efficient, and your company has
enough skills to maintain the product independently.
Conclusion In-house software development means the company using their
own developers to build and implement an IT system that fits the
specific needs of the company. To do this, the company needs to
have an in-house team, including business analysts, programmers,
etc.
This approach gives the company full control over the functions
and in-depth knowledge of how the system operates along with
what they need to face with other competitors in the same segment.
In-house development requires time and money to build a team of
people from different backgrounds or roles to create a strong base
for developing good software.

b. What arguments can Mr Das make in favor of a Cloud-based SaaS CRM solution?
(5 Marks)
Ans.
Introduction Using cloud computer systems will also reduce costs. With higher
cost efficiency, companies will be able to save money as they will
just use software features with a pay as you go approach. Not
using cloud computing systems will likely increase software and
computing costs and overpay for certain resources. 
Concepts and Following are some of key advantages for the MuchMor Estates if
Application related to they opt for on cloud CRM:
the question
1. Easy Installation
A deep-rooted fear within most organizations is that a CRM
installation is a long and complex process, but that’s no longer true
when it comes to a cloud-based CRM. A modern cloud-based
CRM can be up and running in no time. All you actually need is an
internet connection. Once you sign in online, you can immediately
start using the software and make the most of its capabilities. You
don’t have to set up hardware, pay for server and software
maintenance, have an IT person onsite 24×7, or worry about
complex installations, data migrations, or even upgrades – all of
this is taken care of by your cloud-CRM service provider.
2. Anywhere & Anytime Access
Unlike traditional on-premises CRM systems that are accessed
only from the office during work-hours, around-the-clock
accessibility is undeniably the greatest benefit of a cloud-based
CRM. By offering access to the system from anywhere – in the
office or on the way home and on any device – a desktop, a laptop,
a smartphone, or tablet, a cloud-based CRM enables various teams
to get the information they need, ultimately improving business
 process efficiency. From making urgent sales calls on-the-go, to
amending a sales proposal, quickly finding a prospect’s phone
number, or sending an email to the manager when out of office, a
cloud-based CRM offers seamless around-the-clock access to the
centralized database.
3. Cost-Effective
The most substantial investment with traditional CRM systems
was upfront capital expenditures but not anymore. Like other cloud
solutions, cloud-based CRMs operate on a pay-as-you-go
subscription model. With minimal upfront investment, cloud-based
CRMs reduce the chances of risk and enables smaller
organizations to achieve economies of scale sooner. Since small
businesses are not likely to allocate big sums of money for an
enterprise system, these smaller, regular installments help them in
leveraging the many capabilities that are available while improving
their bottom line.
4. Secure
Contrary to the belief that cloud solutions are not very secure,
companies that offer a cloud-based CRM take security very
seriously. With advanced automatized backup policies and robust
data recovery plans, cloud-based CRMs take cybersecurity to an
entirely new level. What’s more, you can further improve data
safety and security by using two-step authentication and strong
passwords, an important requirement for being GDPR-compliant.
5. Flexible
With different organizations having different CRM needs, a cloud-
based CRM offers a solution that can be precisely tailored for your
needs. While small businesses can start with minimal features that
can help them with their current work, they can add more capacity,
new features and advanced modules as they grow. Cloud-based
CRMs can be instantly updated to satisfy new needs. In addition,
by offering 24×7 access to the system, a cloud-based CRM offers
employees the flexibility and freedom to do what they need to do
when they need to do it.
6. Simple Integration
Traditional, stand-alone products often can’t deliver flexibility and
integration that is being demanded by most teams. This is
especially true in a small business environment, where information
exchange between available technologies is paramount. A cloud-
based CRM can be easily integrated with other applications and
software, such as e-mail clients and productivity tools, enabling
you to seamlessly carry out tasks and achieve end-to-end visibility
across the entire sales process.
Conclusion Cloud computing adoption is on the rise every year, and it doesn’t
take long to see why. Enterprises recognize cloud computing
benefits and see how they impact their production, collaboration,
security and revenue.
By using a cloud-based solution, an enterprise can prevent a lot of
problems that plague organizations that rely on on-premises
infrastructure.