Response Required Discussion Cloud DBA

Please read the below two discussion posts and provide the response for each discussion in 75 to 100 words.

Post#1

Nowadays, there are numerous advancements in technology. As a result, the traditional workplace has gradually transformed with home offices and virtual workplaces where employees can hold meetings using video teleconferencing tools and communicate through email and other applications such as Slack (Montrief, et al., 2020). This makes the cloud more busy which brings up the need for improved cloud security.

Generally, in a public cloud, there exists a shared responsibility between the user and the Cloud Service Provider (CSP). Due to the rise of cyber-related crimes over the years, security for things like data classification, network controls and physical security need clear owners. The division of such responsibilities is called shared responsibility model for cloud security. “According to Amazon Web Services (AWS), security responsibility is shared by both CSP and CSC and they called it as Shared Security Responsible Model” (Kumar, Raj, & Jelciana, 2018). “While client and endpoint protection, identity and access management and application level controls are a shared responsibility the responsibility resides largely with the client organization” (Lane, Shrestha, & Ali, 2017). However, the responsibilities may vary depending on the cloud service provider and the cloud environment the user is using to operate. Nevertheless, despite the cloud services used, the burden of protecting data lays upon the user.

Normally, security is broken down into two broad categories: security of the cloud and security in the cloud. Security of the cloud is a section of the shared responsibility model handled by the cloud service provider. It comprises of hardware, host operating systems and physical security of the infrastructure. Most of these logistical challenges are offloaded when an organization moves its operations to the cloud. In contrast, security in the cloud is the security responsibility handled by the user. “The cloud service customer is responsible for securing and managing the applications that run in the cloud, the operating systems, data-at-rest, data-in-transit, policies and other responsibilities” (Bennett & Robertson, 2019). Since access to customer data remains the most critical component in cloud computing, it also determined the level of security in the cloud to be implemented by the customer.

The customer is responsible for the following components. First, the customer is responsible for data security. While the provider is responsible for automatically encrypting data in transit and in storage, the customer is expected to configure file system encryption and protection of network traffic. Secondly, the customer is responsible for physical security of computers and other devices used to access the cloud. Thirdly, the customer is responsible for application security. Security of managed applications may be handles by cloud provider services, but the customer is responsible for configuring those services accurately and correctly. Fourthly, the customer is responsible for security hinges on identity and access management in on-premises computing. The cloud provider can implement authentication services but it’s the work of the customer to configure them. Finally, the customer is responsible for network security on-premises.

The cloud has various advantages such as scalability, elasticity and flexible prices. However, security is remains a critical business concern for many organizations (Xue & Xin, 2016). Regardless of which cloud service provider used, the customer will always be responsible for managing the customer data, analyzing workload, traffic and performance. When implementing cloud projects, customers need to identify and understand the risks associated with digitalization, public networks and outsourcing of infrastructure components. Shared responsibility in cloud computing depends on the agreement that the customer has with the cloud service provider. This is because there are specific tasks that can be logically handled by the customer while other duties are handles by the service provider such as ensuring physical access to the data center is restricted to authorized personnel’s only.

Post#2

Cloud offers variety of services and virtual machine to an organization at cost effective and is thus considered as one of the most innovative advances in technology. The ability to scale as well as stored and manage data increases by using cloud. Regulatory compliance states the modification and the steps that the organization should actively take to reach its goals. Good regulatory compliances needs to be maintained while moving to cloud so that any necessary precaution and post cloud changes can be made to the organization thus moving it closure to the goal and target. “There are straight-forward ways of modeling future ownership and the progression of value creation using a combination of capitalization table analysis and the venture capital method of valuation” (Sammut, 2020).

Protecting the crucial and sensitive data while moving to cloud is the major concern of the organization and database administrator is an intrinsic component of the authorization and control process towards regulatory compliance. DBA don’t necessarily need to know who can access the system but are necessary for database security and checking security breaches and attacks. DBA most importantly needs to know about the architecture of the cloud and the various components being actively used by the organization while moving to cloud. An understanding about the difference between on premises and cloud services including the computing stack is also a requirement for DBA. Along with that, the dba should also know how to utilize all the components of the cloud both from the point of view of administrator and developer. “While current Passive optical network (PON) standards can provide data transmission capacity of tens of Gbps, in the near future, the use of more wavelengths with rates higher than 10 Gb/s could see the overall capacity increase towards hundreds of Gbps” (Afraz, 2018).

DBA also plays the crucial role in managing the budget for the cloud database and thus should have the related information as well as knowledge about application design and impact of cloud database followed by the cost of impact. Studies suggest that it is not recommended to move all the data at once to cloud, at least not initially. The DBA thus needs to work for few days in the hybrid setting of cloud and on-premises arrangement. DBA should know the traditional skills to manage on premises activities and also the advanced skill to deal with the cloud activities and database. The initial movement of database to cloud should only include the crucial and the important effective data and thus DBA should use his understanding to decide what data should be moved to cloud followed by planning for the remaining data and deciding their time to move to cloud. Dba needs to be aware about each component of cloud, the organization services and the cloud services to maintain good regulatory compliance when moving to the cloud. “Since data in the cloud is going to be placed online, it is important that these data in the clouds are well secured” (Krishna, 2018).