Cloud Provider Evaluation Project

      Since you have become familiar with foundations of cloud computing technologies, along with their risks and the legal and compliance issues, you will now explore cloud offerings of popular cloud providers and evaluate them to recommend one that would be the best fit for BallotOnline. In this project, you will first learn about networking in the cloud and auxiliary cloud services provided by cloud vendors. Next, you will explore cloud computing trends, best practices, and issues involved in migrating IT deployments to the cloud, as well as typical architectures of cloud deployments. Then, you will apply your findings to propose a general architecture for BallotOnline’s cloud deployment to best address the company’s business requirements. Once you have selected a deployment architecture, you will research two leading cloud vendors: Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Exploring and comparing the tools available for application migration will enable you to recommend a vendor to the executives in your final report. The final deliverable is a written report to BallotOnline management, describing the results of your research and recommending the cloud deployment architecture and the vendor for its deployment, with justification. Your final report should demonstrate that you understand the IT needs of the organization as you evaluate and select cloud providers. The report should include your insights on the appropriate direction to take to handle the company’s IT business needs. You will also be assessed on the ability to integrate relevant risk, policy, and compliance consideration into the recommendations, as well as the clarity of your writing and a demonstration of logical, step-by-step decision making to formulate and justify your ideas. Take Note This project has a hands-on lab that you need to complete. Instructions for the lab are included in the steps of this project. If you have technical difficulties in completing the lab, we have technology support assistants available to help. Competencies Your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below. · 2.2: Locate and access sufficient information to investigate the issue or problem. · 2.3: Evaluate the information in a logical and organized manner to determine its value and relevance to the problem. · 2.4: Consider and analyze information in context to the issue or problem. · 2.5: Develop well-reasoned ideas, conclusions or decisions, checking them against relevant criteria and benchmarks. · 5.4: Articulate insights to leadership on the appropriate course of direction on the identified IT business needs. · 6.1: Articulate the systems architecture of the cloud - cloud infrastructure, cloud service, cloud platform, and cloud storage. · 6.6: Evaluate and select cloud providers (AWS, Azure, VMware, Google Cloud, IBM). · 6.8: Review, evaluate, and utilize emerging technologies related to cloud to support business needs.