TASK
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You must read the Regional Gardens Case Study in Interact before attempting this assignment
The Regional Gardens Board is considering the following strategic proposal:
• They plan to retain their data centre solely for archival and long-term data storage. This would entail updating their data storage infrastructure, and moving all other infrastructure into the Cloud.
• They plan to implement a multi-cloud strategy to prevent vendor lock-in and provide the ability to take advantage of price differentials.
• They have now moved all their existing Web Services to a IaaS instance in the Cloud that has been designed to provide HA (High Availability) and a better degree of flexibility in supplying data to their customers and employees. This IaaS instance uses a number of Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers using Apache Tomcat.
• They plan to change their current web software architecture to take advantage of the flexibility and scalability that can be gained by moving to a Microservices model (this would entail the use of such services as AWS Lambda or Azure Functions, Containers, Data Services, and Cloud Edge capability and monitoring). All Microservices are to be designed so that they can be easily moved from one cloud to another to suit their changing requirements.
• They also plan to migrate their Garden Design LoB (Line of Business) applications to the cloud in order to increase the application's flexibility and availability. The Garden Design LoB application suite will require: o A number of IaaS instances running Windows Server 2019 o A number of PaaS instances for Microsoft SharePoint 2019 Enterprise
• Regional Gardens would like to keep their gardening data sets in Australia.
The Regional Gardens Board is contemplating this strategy as a way to increase the company’s flexibility and responsiveness. The Board also expects to achieve significant savings by migrating to a Cloud based ICT infrastructure. They appreciate that this would entail retraining for:
• Their existing ICT staff so that they can manage the new Cloud based infrastructure,
• Their development staff so that they can start to develop using a Microservices model.
Regional Gardens has again approached you to advise them on this strategy. The Board is also concerned about how this strategy will affect their BCP (Business Continuity Plan) and their backup and disaster recovery strategies.
Tasks
You have been engaged to provide a report for Regional Gardens in their planned move to a Cloud and Microservices strategy.
Your task is to prepare a report for Regional Gardens that discusses the following:
1. Describe the Cloud architectures you would employ to assist Regional Gardens to meet the Board’s cloud strategy?
a. Should Regional Gardens adopt a hybrid Cloud approach, particularly for its data sets? What are the benefits and issues that would arise from this approach? (10 marks)
b. Describe each of the architectures that you would use to meet the Board’s hybrid cloud strategy, along with your reasons for deploying them. (15 marks)
c. Describe the benefits, critical points and issues that would be the likely result of the deployment of these architectures. (15 marks)
2. Describe the major Information Security risks that you see associated with the move to this Microservices strategy for Web Services. You should name and describe each risk that you identify, estimate its likelihood and consequence and then describe a possible control for the risk. This should be presented in a tabular form. (20 marks)
3. Discuss what you would recommend should be included in Regional Gardens' BCP as a result of their adoption of a Cloud and Microservices approach. You will need to consider, as a minimum, the issues of application resilience, backup and disaster recovery in a Hybrid Cloud environment. (40 marks)
You are to provide a written report with the following headings:
• Proposed Architectures for a Cloud approach
• Threat and Risk Assessment report for Cloud and Microservices
• BCP changes to meet a Cloud and Microservices approach
As a rough guide, the report should not be longer than about 5,000 words.
RATIONALE
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SUBJECT LEARNING OUTCOMES
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:
• be able to compare and evaluate the ability of different cloud computing architectures to meet a set of given business requirements.
• be able to evaluate a set of business requirements to determine suitability for a cloud computing delivery model.
• be able to identify and design an ICT Risk Management strategy for a cloud computing delivery plan to meet business requirements.
• be able to critically analyse business requirements to plan a migration to a cloud model.
• be able to compare and critique Service Level Agreements (SLA) that meet the business requirements for a cloud computing plan
GRADUATE LEARNING OUTCOMES
This task also contributes to the assessment of the following CSU Graduate Learning Outcome/s:
• Information and Research Literacies (Knowledge) - CSU Graduates demonstrate that disciplinary knowledge is developed through research and evidence.
• Information and Research Literacies (Skill) - CSU Graduates demonstrate the skills required to locate, access and critically evaluate existing information and data.
• Digital Literacies (Knowledge) - CSU Graduates understand professional, social and cultural implications of the global use of technology.
• Digital Literacies (Skill) - CSU Graduates use, create, communicate and share multimodal information in digital environments.
• Professional Practice (Knowledge) - CSU Graduates possess the knowledge and understanding of the discipline and the nature of professionalism required for the given profession or discipline in contemporary societies.
• Professional Practice (Skill) - CSU Graduates demonstrate discipline-specific technical capabilities and self-appraisal required for a beginning practitioner or professional.
MARKING CRITERIA AND STANDARDS back to top
Assessment Rubric
Question HD DI CR PS FL
Q1a. Hybrid Cloud approach (10 marks) Clear and comprehensi ve description of Hybrid Cloud approach for data, with all benefits, issues and critical points identified & discussed Detailed description of Hybrid Cloud approach for data, with most benefits, issues and critical points identified & discussed Good
description of Hybrid Cloud approach for
data, with many
benefits, issues and critical points identified & discussed Adequate description of Hybrid Cloud approach for
data, with some
benefits, issues and critical points identified & discussed Inadequate or incomplete description of Hybrid Cloud approach for data, with few or no benefits, issues and critical points identified & discussed
Question HD DI CR PS FL
Q1b. Architecture s (15 marks) Clear and comprehensi ve description of Cloud architectures needed, benefits and critical points and issues identified & discussed Detailed description of Cloud architectures needed, most benefits, critical points and issues identified & discussed Good description of Cloud architectures
needed,
many
benefits, critical points and issues identified & discussed Adequate description of Cloud architectures needed,
some
benefits, critical points and issues identified & discussed Inadequate or incomplete description of Cloud architectures needed, few or no benefits, issues or critical points identified & discussed
Q1c.
Benefits and issues (15 marks) Clear and comprehensi ve evaluation and discussion of the benefits gained and issues associated with Multi Cloud architecture using Microservice
s Very good evaluation and discussion of the benefits gained and issues associated with Multi Cloud architecture using Microservice
s Good
evaluation and discussion of the benefits gained and issues associated with Multi Cloud architecture using Microservice
s Good
evaluation and discussion of the benefits gained and issues associated with Multi Cloud architecture using Microservice
s Inadequate or incomplete evaluation
with little or no discussion of the benefits gained and issues associated with Multi Cloud architecture using Microservice
s
2. Risk
Assessment
for
Microservic es (20 marks) Clear,
comprehensi ve description of Risk
Management issues for
Web
Microservice
s, critical points identified & discussed, Detailed description of Risk
Management
issues for
Web
Microservice
s, many critical points identified & discussed, Good description of Risk
Management
issues for
Web
Microservice
s, many critical points identified & discussed, Adequate description of Risk
Management
issues for
Web
Microservice
s, some critical points identified & discussed, Inadequate or incomplete description of Risk
Management issues for
Web
Microservice
s, critical points identified & discussed,
3. Changes to BCP for Clear,
comprehensi Detailed description Good description Adequate description Inadequate or
Question HD DI CR PS FL
Cloud and Microservic es (40 marks) ve description of backup and DR plan for Cloud and
Microservice
s, critical points identified & discussed, of backup and DR plan for Cloud and
Microservice
s, critical points identified & discussed, of backup and DR plan for Cloud and
Microservice
s, some critical points identified & discussed, of backup and DR plan for Cloud and
Microservice
s, some critical points identified incomplete description of backup and DR plan for Cloud and
Microservice s, none or few critical points identified
Referencing Up to 5 marks may be deducted for not providing or following the proper APA 7 style of referencing.
Presentation Up to 5 marks may be deducted for poor presentation, spelling and grammar
PRESENTATION
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You are to provide a written report with the following headings:
• Proposed Architectures for a Multi Cloud
• Risk report for Hybrid Cloud and Microservices
• BCP Changes, or
• Microservices Administration and SLA Management
As a rough guide, the report should not be longer than about 6,000 words.
Your report MUST be presented in MS Word format. Your report should: • Use Calibri, or a similar font, in 11 or 12 point type.
• All diagrams and images are to be embedded in the document. Diagrams and images that are supplied separately will not be marked.
• All text should be left-justified.
• Each page must have a header or footer with your name and student number.
Page numbers must be shown in the footer of each page, except on the title page.
Reports are marked and feedback attached using a MS Word based tool. Reports that are submitted in PDF format will be re-formatted to Word format in order to be marked. Allowances will not be made for any loss of information, diagrams or images as a result of the re-formatting.
REQUIREMENTS
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Assessment tasks that are NOT completed through the Subject site need to be submitted electronically via Turnitin site by the due date. Turnitin class details for this subject will be given by your lecturer.
Unless advised otherwise, all Turnitin submissions are due by midnight (AEST) of the date specified. Please note that the time and the date of your Turnitin submission will be used to determine your official submission time.
All textual elements within an assessment must be submitted in a format that is readable by Turnitin. Specific exceptions, where an assessment requires the insertion of image-based evidence of workings will be outlined in the context of the assessment. Students that deliberately attempt to insert the content of assessments in a format that is not readable by Turnitin may be subject to Academic misconduct investigations.
Additional Submission Information:
It is recommended that your name, student ID and page number are included in the header or footer of every page of any assignment. You are also required to rename your assignment file before you submit via Turnitin as per below protocol:
SUBJECT CODE, SI, SURNAME, STUDENT ID, ASSESSMENT NUMBER, SESSION.
Example – ITC561 SI PATEL 11554466 A1 202060.doc