Choosing Cloud Vendors For My Health Record System: Microsoft, Amazon And IBM

Vendor Selection

The Commonwealth Government of Australia will be launching the ‘My Health Record’ system that is an online platform of sharing the health records of the patients. The project will be considering a cloud based solution and for that, appropriate cloud vendors are needed to be chosen. The easy accessibility of the patient’s data is an important criterion of successful project implementation and therefore it is essential to choose a cloud vendor who will provide a secure cloud service for this project. Furthermore, it is essential to consider the security of the patients’ data that is stored in the system (Zheng et al., 2013). The report will be addressing three cloud vendors and will further analyse their suitability for the project. Apart from that, the choice of an appropriate cloud environment is essential. The choice of the cloud environment will be based on the criteria of secure data storage and data access. Furthermore, the choice of the SDLC approach is evaluated as well in order to ensure that the project will be implemented in a scheduled time.

Vendor selection is one of the important aspects of this project as the project is considering the use of cloud in storage of the data. The appropriateness of the vendor selection will be judged on basis of their key features that addresses the needs of the project. The three vendors that can be considered for this project are Microsoft, Amazon and IBM. These vendors are chosen for this project as these cloud vendors are topmost cloud providers across the world. The features of the services provided by these vendors are discussed in the following sections.

The choice of the Microsoft is significant in this case as it provides all in one solution to the cloud requirements of the clients. Microsoft provides cloud services to the leading countries across the world.  This is because the Microsoft cloud services are offered to IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. The choice of the Microsoft is appropriate for this project as it offers a number of benefits to the customers. The features on basis of which the appropriateness of Microsoft for this project is evaluated are discussed below (Microsoft Azure, 2018)-

1. Since it offers solution to all the three layers of the cloud, it will is considered appropriate for this project.
2. The services provided by the Microsoft vendor is easily scalable and can be customized according to the needs of the customers.
3. The Microsoft cloud can be applied and used in a number of operations including the applications of Io Tans other mobile devices. This is another reason why this cloud vendor is chosen for this project.
4. Microsoft makes use of the most advanced technologies in providing cloud solutions to the clients. Therefore, it is beneficial to consider this cloud vendor for the project.
5. A number of business organizations make use of the Microsoft cloud that increases the reliability of the services offered.
6.  The applications that are based on AI are making use of Microsoft cloud that makes it more suitable for the project in consideration.

Amazon is another vendor that can be chosen for this project. The services offered by Amazon are quite customizable that increases the adoption of the services offered by this cloud vendor. The distinctive feature on basis of which this cloud vendor is considered appropriate for this project are listed below (AWS, 2018)-

1. The Amazon cloud services addresses a large business needs that increases its adoption in the global market as well.
2. The choice of the Amazon is appropriate for this project as the services provided by this vendor can be easily accessed by the customers with the help of their mobile devices.
3.  The security of the data stored is quite efficiently maintained by Amazon cloud and therefore it is appropriate for this project.
4.  The needs of the customers become the first priority for the vendor and therefore it is appropriate to consider this vendor for the project.
5. The less subscription charge and pay as you go model increase the adoption of Amazon cloud service.
6. A robust and scalable services are offered by Amazon and therefore it this vendor is chosen for the project.

Suitable Cloud Environment

The choice of the IBM as a vendor of cloud is appropriate as it is one of the leading cloud service providers across the world. The features offered by IBM cloud are as follows (IBM Cloud services, 2018)-

1. The cloud services provided by IBM is very cost effective and therefore it is considered for this project.
2. The services offered by IBM cloud are highly scalable as the data and services are maintained by a single storage system. It will therefore be appropriate to consider for the project.
3. The security structure offered by IBM cloud makes it suitable for the project.
4. The services offered by the IBM cloud are quite reliable and the information availability is on point as well (Garg, Versteeg & Buyya, 2013).
5. The data stored in the cloud database of the services offered by IBM cloud is easily accessible and manageable.
6.  Since it does not have any specific hardware requirement, the customers are highly benefited with the adoption of this cloud service.

Since the project is considering a cloud based approach it is essential to evaluate whether the public, private and the hybrid cloud will be suitable to consider for this project. There are a number of data security issues associated with the use of public cloud as the data stored in a public cloud platform can be easily accessible by general public (Jadeja & Modi, 2012). The data of the patients are quite confidential and therefore, this cloud platform cannot be considered. There are certain issues associated with the use of the private cloud platform as well (Li et al., 2013). The cost of implementation of private cloud is very high as separate infrastructure is needed to be maintained. The choice of private cloud is therefore not suitable for this project (Li et al., 2015). A hybrid cloud is recommended for this project since it makes use of both public and private cloud environment. Therefore along with the maintenance of data security, the cost of implementation of this cloud environment in the project will be considerably reduced as well (Wang & Jia, 2012). The strength and weakness of the hybrid cloud is evaluated in order to understand whether the choice of hybrid cloud is suitable for this project or not.

There are a number of advantages of making use of a hybrid cloud environment which are as follows-

1. The choice of hybrid cloud environment is appropriate considering the security needs of the project. Since the data can be only accessed by authorized individuals, the use of public cloud is not permitted. However, the use of hybrid cloud although will not completely restrict the access of the data, but will ensure only the authorized members is allowed to access the data.
2. The use of hybrid cloud has a benefit of easier data accessibility in comparison to the hybrid cloud environment.
3. The cost of implementation of a hybrid cloud is considerably low in consideration to the implementation of private cloud

Although the use of hybrid cloud will be advantageous to the project, there are certain weaknesses associated with the use of this cloud environment which are listed below-

1. Hybrid cloud has certain security issues that are associated with the switching of public and the private zone. These security issues are needed to be addressed by ensuring proper access control in the system. (Sen, 2015)
2. The cost of implementation of a system in a hybrid cloud environment is quite high in consideration to public cloud.

These weaknesses and the issues should be addressed in order to ensure successful completion of the project.

The predictive or the adaptive SDLC approach is to be chosen for the project for ensuring successful and timely completion of this information technology project. For evaluating which SDLC approach will be better to be considered for this particular project, the pros and cons of each of the SDLC approaches are evaluated.

The pros and cons of using a predictive SDLC approach in a project are as follows (Mahalakshmi & Sundararajan, 2013)-

Pros

The advantages of using predictive SDLC approach in the project are as follows-

1. Predictive SDLC ensures that the requirements and the scope of the project are identified at the beginning of the project so that there is no chances of change incorporation during the project implementation phase and subsequently no project delays.
2. Since the requirements of the project are quite clear from the initiation phase, it is easier to implement the project within the set schedule and further ensures that the risks of the project are properly addressed.

Cons

The disadvantages of using a predictive SDLC approach are as follows-

1. Absence of feedback path makes it very difficult to incorporate changes in the project.
2. The testing phase is generally one of the last phases of project lifecycle in this approach and therefore addressing the major project bugs becomes difficult (Tuteja & Dubey, 2012).

Strengths and Weaknesses of Hybrid Cloud

The pros and cons of Adaptive SDLC are discussed below (Balaji & Murugaiyan, 2012)-

Pros

1. The presence of feedback path makes it easier to incorporate changes in the project according to the requirements of the clients.
2. The projects that are implemented using a predictive SDLC approach can incorporate change in scope. The presence of feedback path and continuous testing makes it easier to identify and address the project bugs or errors.

Cons

1. It is very difficult to complete a project within a given schedule as the project might change its course during execution.
2. In order to control the project, thorough project supervision is needed.

For this project, a predictive SDLC approach is chosen since it is very essential to complete the project within the set project schedule. The use of predictive approach will prevent any addition in the project requirements thus ensuring timely completion of the project. Furthermore, the scope and requirement of the project is clear and therefore it is appropriate to choose this approach for the project.

Conclusion 

The report identifies the suitable vendors for this project based in the features and the services offered by those vendors. The report further identifies the cloud environment which will be suitable for this project and recommends the use of predictive SDLC to complete the project on time. It is mandatory to complete the project on time as it is undertaken by the Commonwealth Government of Australia.

References 

Balaji, S., & Murugaiyan, M. S. (2012). Waterfall vs. V-Model vs. Agile: A comparative study on SDLC. International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management, 2(1), 26-30.

Cloud Solutions – Amazon Web Services (AWS). (2018). Retrieved from https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/?nc2=h_ql_s&awsm=ql-2

Garg, S. K., Versteeg, S., & Buyya, R. (2013). A framework for ranking of cloud computing services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(4), 1012-1023.

IBM Cloud services. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ibm.com/cloud/services

Jadeja, Y., & Modi, K. (2012, March). Cloud computing-concepts, architecture and challenges. In Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies (ICCEET), 2012 International Conference on (pp. 877-880). IEEE.

Li, J., Li, Y. K., Chen, X., Lee, P. P., & Lou, W. (2015). A hybrid cloud approach for secure authorized deduplication. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 26(5), 1206-1216.

Li, Q., Wang, Z. Y., Li, W. H., Li, J., Wang, C., & Du, R. Y. (2013). Applications integration in a hybrid cloud computing environment: Modelling and platform. Enterprise Information Systems, 7(3), 237-271.

Mahalakshmi, M., & Sundararajan, M. (2013). Traditional SDLC Vs Scrum Methodology–A Comparative Study. International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering, 3(6), 192-196.

Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Platform and Services. (2018). Retrieved from https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/

Sen, J. (2015). Security and privacy issues in cloud computing. In Cloud Technology: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1585-1630). IGI Global.

Tuteja, M., & Dubey, G. (2012). A research study on importance of testing and quality assurance in software development life cycle (SDLC) models. International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering (IJSCE), 2(3), 251-257.

Wang, J. K., & Jia, X. (2012, November). Data Security and Authentication in hybrid cloud computing model. In Global High Tech Congress on Electronics (GHTCE), 2012 IEEE (pp. 117-120). IEEE.

Zheng, Z., Wu, X., Zhang, Y., Lyu, M. R., & Wang, J. (2013). QoS ranking prediction for cloud services. IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems, 24(6), 1213-1222.