Abstract
This report explains how Don & Associates (D&A) will use the Amazon administration panel to construct a virtual private cloud (VPC), add a subnet, create a VPC security group, and start a web server instance. The objective of this demonstration is to highlight the technical elements of the suggested cloud service provider and show D&A management how using Amazon Web Services (AWS) can be advantageous for the company.
With a particular emphasis on Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, the report also covers private, public, and hybrid cloud computing. After analyzing the benefits and drawbacks, AWS was the best option for D&A. The study’s project details section shows a step-by-step prototype for creating a virtual private cloud and running a web server. This prototype serves as a proof-of-concept for D&A management, demonstrating how AWS may be used to achieve strategic goals. The paper also emphasizes the Amazon Database Migration Service (DMS), which enables enterprises to move databases to AWS in a secure and timely manner, assisting D&A in transferring data between private and public databases.
Introduction
Don & Associates, a financial consulting firm, decided to study cloud computing as a potential business alternative. The firm is organized hierarchically, with the partners at the top of the hierarchy overseeing the general course and direction of the business. The partners are responsible for setting the company’s objectives, making critical business decisions, and supervising the work of the managers and colleagues.
Managers in charge of certain projects or divisions are at a level above them in the hierarchy. They report to the partner, ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget, and monitor the business’s day-to-day operations. Associates at the bottom of the hierarchy handle customers’ accounts. They report to the managers and are responsible for providing high-quality financial consulting services to customers. While the company specializes in providing financial advisory services to small and medium-sized firms, the associates work with a diverse clientele.
As a member of the IT team, I was responsible for assessing whether cloud computing would be a practical solution for the company and suggesting a reliable cloud service provider. Following a thorough evaluation of numerous cloud service providers, Amazon Web Services was indicated as the best choice for the company due to its affordability, pay-as-you-go billing model, and ability to assist the company in making a seamless transition from an entirely physical presence to cloud services.
The executive team first requested a prototype to properly understand the solution’s potential benefits. To aid the organization in reaching its strategic goals, a step-by-step example of setting up an Amazon VPC environment was provided. The Amazon administration interface was simple to use, but it was suggested that the data needed for transfer be defined before beginning the project.
Statement of Need
Don & Associates is shifting to cloud services, particularly for data processing, to meet its rapid growth and improve user experiences. Some of the causes driving this transition are the availability of resources, expert data storage, enhanced security, collaboration, disaster recovery, technical help, ease of control, and financial stability. The organization needs a scalable cloud computing solution to store existing and new data generated by expansion plans. After examining several cloud computing platforms, D&A management has decided that Amazon Web Services is the best alternative. Therefore, to validate this decision and understand Amazon’s capabilities, D&A management has requested a platform demonstration, which will serve as the foundation for the simple installation of the AWS solution.
Assumptions
During the investigation, many assumptions were made about how Amazon’s management tools would enable enterprises to implement AWS in a virtual network. According to one assumption, configuring route tables, subnets, IP address ranges, and network gateways per business requirements may be simple. Additionally, it was believed that Don & Associates would keep their networks and servers organized using the AWS VPC service.
Another assumption was that because Don & Associates provides financial services, information security was a primary priority. As a result, the company will opt for a hybrid cloud deployment architecture to protect sensitive financial data (Dutta & Dutta, 2019). Hybrid clouds combine the advantages of private and public clouds to offer improved flexibility, scalability, cost-efficiency, and security. By utilizing a hybrid cloud solution, Don & Associates may customize their IT infrastructure to match their unique business requirements while guaranteeing the protection of sensitive financial data.
Description of Current Infrastructure
The existing on-site IT infrastructure of Don & Associates supports financial consulting services for small to medium-sized businesses. It consists of on-site hardware such as physical servers, network switches, and storage units. Subnets divide the network infrastructure into sections for traffic control and security. Nevertheless, the current capacity is nearing its limit and is challenging to maintain; however, it also lacks flexibility and security (Ganne, 2022). The infrastructure must be increased, simplified, and hardened to support the company’s expansion ambitions, adapt to shifting business needs, and improve safety.
Cloud Service Providers
The development of cloud computing and its advantages for companies of all sizes are covered in this section. It lists the three largest cloud service providers—AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud—and describes the many cloud services each provides (Dutta & Dutta, 2019). Therefore, this section underlines that a company’s particular demands, including pricing, compliance, reliability, and available services, determine the best cloud service provider.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure’s cloud computing platform offers a wide range of services, including AI and machine learning, analytics, DevOps, IoT, integration, blockchain, developer tools, virtual desktops, and more. Security, compliance, and global operability are among the benefits available only through the Azure intelligent cloud (Kelley et al., 2020). Azure benefits from a strong emphasis on compliance and over 90 certifications; however, its price may be complicated, resulting in unexpected expenses.
AWS
AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon founded in 2002, provides close to 165 fully functional services worldwide. Amazon services include virtual private cloud space, EC2, storage, DynamoDB, administration services, data transfer simplicity, R53, elastic cloud computing, and queuing service. Amazon also offers certifications, encrypted security, and global availability. One of AWS’s advantages is its affordability, which includes pay-as-you-go pricing and a free tier for beginning users (Kelley et al., 2020). However, its complex pricing might often result in unexpected fees.
Google Cloud
Google Cloud offers many services, such as computing, storage, networking, machine learning, data analytics, and application development. Some of its products include Google Compute Engine, Google Cloud Storage, and Google Bigtable. Google Cloud provides security, data analytics, and machine learning services. The stability and speed of the Google Cloud, with a concentration on data analytics and machine learning capabilities, are advantages (Stashko, 2023). However, when compared to other cloud providers, its pricing can be confusing and less appealing
Project Details
The project section outlines the protocols required to build a prototype or proof of concept for the cloud computing system recommended for Don & Associates. It visually depicts the implementation process, emphasizing the activation of an Amazon web server and the establishment of a Virtual Private Cloud. By discussing the approach and its outcomes, the section exposes the potential benefits of the cloud computing solution for Don & Associates.
Building a VPC on AWS
Amazon VPC allows resources to enter a virtual network that the administrator has created. A VPC may contain many availability zones. The demonstration creates the VPC using the VPC wizard in the “Services” menu of the Amazon management console. The wizard prompts the user to choose a VPC with public and private subnets and input the names of the network’s public and private subnets and the VPC.
Following the selection of options, the VPC Wizard creates the VPC. The example shows how to generate two extra subnets in a second availability zone once the VPC has been designed to ensure high availability. After selecting the subnets option from the menu on the left, the user enters the VPC ID, subnet name, and second availability zone (Stashko, 2023). The same procedure creates two subnets, each with its IPv4 CIDR block.
After building both subnets, the tutorial shows how to generate the routing table for the private subnets. This allows resources in the private network to connect to the Internet while remaining private. It also enables private subnets to route internet-bound traffic to the NAT Gateway. By selecting the private route table associated with the previously created Lab VPC, the user adjusts the subnet association to include private subnets 1 and 2. The subnet association for public subnets 1 and 2 is configured similarly.
The presentation then shows how to set up a virtual firewall, often known as a VPC security group. When a demonstration is installed, it is linked to the security group, allowing traffic to and from it. To begin a security group, the user navigates to the left navigation pane and clicks the “Create security group” button.
The security group is established, and an inbound rule lets HTTP web traffic through. The tutorial closes by explaining how to launch an AWS EC2 instance using a security group (Gupta et al., 2021). The previously created security group is now associated with the instance, allowing traffic to and from it.
Launching a Web Server on AWS
A few procedures must be taken to create a VPC on AWS and configure it as a web server. AWS EC2 instance is started in the VPC after the VPC, subnets, and security group are created. The EC2 instance is configured by logging into the Amazon administrative console and selecting EC2. The Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with the chosen operating system (Amazon Linux 2 OS) is picked after choosing the Launch Instance option (Gupta et al., 2021).
The network and subnet are configured, storage and tags are allocated, and a security group is selected. The hardware resources allotted to the instance are also specified. Hence, the demo is launched to inspect the instance metadata once the setup has been reviewed and the public DNS (IPv4) value from the instance description has been copied and pasted. For the AWS EC2 instance to be used as a web server, several procedures must be completed, including configuring the network and subnet, specifying hardware resources, choosing an appropriate AMI, setting up the security group, and running the instance.
Challenges Encountered
While setting up the VPC and deploying the web server on AWS, there were a few major obstacles to overcome. However, there were a few minor issues that needed to be resolved. Navigating the Amazon administration dashboard and locating certain menu options to construct and deploy the instance proved to be one of the difficulties. For example, one must be aware of which choice to make when configuring a Routing Table or creating a Security Group to design a VPC (Ganne, 2022). Understanding the many options available and the AWS management portal was necessary for this.
The appropriate configuration of the VPC and its related components was another difficulty. Hence, it required specifying the number of availability zones, the number of subnets within each availability zone, the kind of instances that would be produced, and other pertinent details. While these are not complex issues, they take time and require careful planning to ensure everything is configured correctly.
Furthermore, even if starting the web server went without a hitch, making sure it was set up correctly as a web server took some technical know-how. It required choosing the appropriate AMI with the correct operating system and defining the hardware resources assigned to the instance (Kelley et al., 2020). It also involved configuring the network and subnet, setting storage and a tag to identify the resource, and configuring the security group to allow inbound traffic for web traffic.
Conclusion
After researching several suppliers, Don & Associates found that Amazon Web Services was the best cloud platform for their business. AWS’s pay-as-you-go pricing is cost-effective for smaller enterprises like D&A. Notwithstanding concerns about data security, the cost-benefit analysis indicated more advantages to adopting AWS than disadvantages.
D&A created a virtual private cloud, an internet gateway, and high-availability subnets to demonstrate how their IT infrastructure would be migrated to the cloud. Owing to AWS’s administrative dashboard’s comprehensive solution for migrating IT infrastructure to the cloud, D&A may expand its business in the northeastern United States without worrying about overhead expenditures.
References
Dutta, P., & Dutta, P. (2019). Comparative study of cloud services offered by Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, Volume-3(Issue-3), 981–985. Web.
Ganne, A. (2022). Emerging business trends in cloud computing. International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science. Web.
Gupta, B., Mittal, P., & Mufti, T. (2021). A review on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure & Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on ICT for Digital, Smart, and Sustainable Development, ICIDSSD 2020, 27-28 February 2020, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. Web.
Kelley, R., Antu, A. D., Kumar, A., & Xie, B. (2020). Choosing the right compute resources in the cloud: An analysis of the compute services offered by Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. 2020 International Conference on Cyber-Enabled Distributed Computing and Knowledge Discovery (CyberC). Web.
Stashko, A. (2023). Top cloud service providers: A quick comparison. Avenga. Web.