Running head APPLICATIONS RELATIVE TO COURSE OBJECTIVES .docx

Running head: APPLICATIONS RELATIVE TO COURSE
OBJECTIVES 1
APPLICATIONS RELATIVE TO COURSE OBJECTIVES
2
Applications Relative To Course Objectives
Woodrow Rowell
5/3/20
In this case, I am dealing with a construction project.
Successful implementation of the project will demand the
creation of effective project metrics. The metrics are useful in
that they help in controlling project costs, evaluating project

success, project status, possible risks, and assessing the
productivity and the quality of the project team. Such elements
are crucial in making sure that the project has been completed
as planned. Time, costs, and scope have got limits, which are
determined during the project planning stage. Project managers
focus on completing the project within the scheduled time frame
or less, incurring the planned cost or less, and working within
the defined scope. Project metrics are useful in preventing
adverse deviation from the expectation or plan.
Key characteristics of a metric that are properly designed are;
first, the metric should be relevant to the project being
undertaken. Secondly, the metric should be in proper alignment
with the objectives and goals of the project. Third, it must be
strategic. The formulation of the project should start from the
identified goals and objectives, working backward. Fourth, the
metric must be simple and easy to understand by the project
team. Fifth, the metrics should be measurable to determine the
extent to which they are being achieved.
In a metric-driven project, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
mainly focus on the costs, resource use, and scheduled time.
Some of the common KPIs used are project schedule, estimate
to project completion, resource allocation, development
backlog, among others. The KPIs are evaluated from time to
time to evaluate whether the project is on the right track.
Failure to consider value-based project management metrics
leads to the selection of the wrong metrics and the inability to
add value to the project as it continues, as the project team
tends to focus more on the results and not the processes. Key
factors to consider include; key performance indicators (current
value) and Customer value management (maximizing the value
of the customers) (EIRGASH et al., 2017).
Project dashboards play a crucial role in evaluating project
performance. They are supposed to be designed in accordance
with the number of stakeholders and key activities being
executed within the project. The design has to incorporate the
activity and milestone tracking capability, production of

progress reports, task status, resource allocation, teamwork
status, etc. Limitations of the dashboards are that they have got
a limited number of individuals accessing them, the maximum
number of widgets is twelve, shared Dashboards per view reach
50 for every analytics account, and edit permission to share.
Such limitations make it hard for the dashboards to
accommodate a large number of project teams and widgets, as it
offers limited access (Kerzner, 2017).
The visual project management tools ensure that all information
related to the projected has been centralized for easy access,
retrieval, and usage. It offers crucial platforms for collaborative
management of the project, scheduling as well as effective
resource management, facilitating the realization of the project
goals and objectives. Project performance dashboards track the
performance of individuals and teams within the project, thus
making sure that the project is being completed as planned. It
facilitates communication and reporting, among other practices.
Based on the nature of my project, performance indicators will
include; Average Daily Attendance (ADA) of project team
members, completion of activities with the assigned resources,
completion of each with the planned time frame, and customer
satisfaction per activity.
References
EIRGASH, M. A., TOĞAN, V., & KAZAZ, A. (2017).
Application of Earned Value-Based Metrics to Enhance the
Performance Measurement of Engineering Project
Management. Digital Proceeding of ICOCEE–CAPPADOCIA.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management metrics, KPIs, and
dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project
performance. John Wiley & Sons.

School of Computer & Information Sciences
ITS-532 Cloud Computing
Chapter 9 – Securing the Cloud
Content from:
Primary Textbook: Jamsa, K. A. (2013). Cloud computing:
SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, virtualization, business models, mobile,
security and more. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Secondary Textbook: Erl, T., Mahmood, Z., & Puttini, R.
(2014). Cloud computing: concepts, technology, & architecture.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
1
Learning Objectives
List the security advantages of using a cloud-based provider.
List the security disadvantages of using a cloud-based provider.
Describe common security threats to cloud-based environments.
Physical Security
IT data centers have been secured physically to prevent users
who do not have a need to physically touch computers, servers,
and storage devices from doing so.
A general security rule is that if an individual can physically
touch a device, the individual can more easily break into the
device.

Advantages of Cloud Providers with Respect to Security
Immediate deployment of software patches
Extended human-relations reach
Hardware and software redundancy
Timeliness of incident response
Specialists instead of personnel
Disadvantages of Cloud-Based Security
Country or jurisdiction issues
Multitenant risks
Malicious insiders
Vendor lock in
Risk of the cloud-based provider failing
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is the characteristic of something being made
accessible only to authorized parties. Within the cloud,
confidentiality must be maintained for data in transit and in
storage.
6
(Erl, 2014)
Figure 6.1 The message issued by the cloud consumer to the
cloud service is considered confidential only if it is not
accessed or read by an unauthorized party.

Integrity
Integrity is the characteristic of not having data altered by an
unauthorized party. Integrity extends to how data is stored,
processes, and transmitted.
7
(Erl, 2014)
Figure 6.2 The message issued by the cloud consumer to the
cloud service is considered to have integrity if it has not been
altered.
Basic Terms and Concepts
Authenticity – being provided by and authorized source
Availability – being available during a specified time period
Threat – a potential security violation that can challenge
defenses
Vulnerability – a weakness that can be exploited
Risk – possibility of loss or harm from an activity
Security Controls – countermeasures us to prevent or respond to
security threats and to reduce or avoid risk
Security Mechanisms – components of a defensive framework
that protects IT resources, information, and services.
8
(Erl, 2014)

Security Risk - Flawed Implementation
Substandard design, implementation, or configuration of cloud
services can have serious undesired consequences runtime
exceptions and failures.
9
(Erl, 2014)
Figure 6.15 Cloud Service Consumer A’s message triggers a
configuration flaw in Cloud Service A, which in turn causes the
virtual server that is also hosting Cloud Services B and C to
crash.
Risk Management
To reduce risk in the Cloud, a formal risk assessment should be
performed as a cyclical process including risk assessment, risk
treatment, and risk control.
10
(Erl, 2014)
Figure 6.16 The on-going risk management process, which can
be initiated from any of the three stages.
Real World: McAfee Security as a Service
McAfee now offers a range of security solutions that deploy
from the cloud. The solutions protect e-mail (spam, phishing,
redirection, and virus elimination), websites, desktop
computers, mobile devices, and more.

Data Storage Wiping
Within a cloud-based disk storage facility, file wiping
overwrites a file’s previous contents when the file is deleted.
Denial of Service Attacks
A denial-of-service attack is a hacker attack on a site, the goal
of which is to consume system resources so that the resources
cannot be used by the site’s users.
The motivation for and the implementation of denial-of-service
attacks differ.
Simple Denial of Service
:Loop
ping SomeSite.com
GOTO Loop
While responding to the ping message, the server can handle
fewer other requests

Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Attack
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack uses multiple
computers distributed across the Internet to attack a target site
Packet Sniffing Attacks
Network applications communicate by exchanging network
packets. Each computer within a wired network examines the
message address to determine if the message is for an
application it is running.
Packet Sniffing Continued
A hacker can write code that lets his system examine the
content of each packet that travels past it.
Within a wireless network, hackers can simply monitor the
airways to intercept packets.
The cloud, because it allows users to connect to applications
from anywhere, increases potential risks. Users may connect
from an insecure network or a network in which the wireless
traffic is being monitored.
The best defense against a packet sniffing attack is to use secure
(encrypted) connections.

Man-in-the Middle Attack
Within a man-in-the-middle attack, a hacker intercepts the
messages a user and system are exchanging. The hacker can
view and/or change the message contents.
Monitoring Device Screens
Years ago, when employees accessed sensitive or confidential
data only from within their office, the data was better physically
protected from prying eyes.
The cloud, however, extends the delivery of such data to users
who are any place, at any time, and often to any device.
The net result is that within a busy coffee shop or an airport,
strangers can see data ranging from human-relations
information or customer sales data to student grades, and more.
Malicious Employees
Companies spend considerable amounts of money trying to
protect their data and communications from hackers.
IT staffs deploy firewalls, use encryption, monitor network
traffic for intrusion, and much more. With all of these security
features in place, the most difficult challenge for a company to
defend itself against is a malicious employee.

Malicious Employees Continued
Developers, for example, have access to databases, and IT staff
members have access to various system passwords, which means
that each may have access to human-relations data, payroll data,
e-mail content, and so on.
By shifting data to the cloud, you move sensitive data away
from your own employees.
Hypervisor Attack
When you virtualize a server, each server operating system runs
on top of special virtualization software called the hypervisor.
Hypervisor developers such as VMware and Microsoft
constantly focus on ways to lock down and secure the
hypervisor to reduce risks.
The hypervisor will remain an attractive hacker target as
companies continue to virtualize solutions.
Hypervisor Attack Continued
Hackers refer to the process of taking over the hypervisor as a
hyperjacking attack.
To reduce the chance of a hypervisor being taken over by
malicious code the underlying hardware may assign a state
value, like a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), to the hypervisor.
If this value changes, the hardware can detect that the
hypervisor has been attacked or replaced.

Guest Hopping Attack
Hackers refer to an attack from one guest operating system to
another as a guest hopping attack.
Real World: Cloud Security Alliance
The Cloud Security Alliance is a not-for-profit organization, the
goal of which is to promote education of cloud security issues.
The Cloud Security Alliance consists of a large coalition of
cloud practitioners, companies, associations, and other cloud
stakeholders.
SQL Injection Attack
Many web applications present forms that users must complete
by filling in fields and then submitting the form contents for
processing.
The application that receives the form data often stores the data
within an SQL database.
SQL Injection Attack Continued
An SQL-injection attack occurs when a malicious user inserts

one or more SQL queries within one or more of the fields. For
example, rather than simply typing in his or her last name, the
hacker might type the following:
Smith; DROP DATABASE EMPLOYEES;
Depending on how the database uses the user input, the
processing may result in the execution of the injected SQL,
which in this case would delete the database of the company’s
employees.
SQL Injection Attack Continued
Many cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) solutions are
multitenant applications, which means different customers may
share underlying resources such as a database.
If the SaaS application falls victim to SQL injection, it might be
possible for a user in one company to view, change, or destroy
the data of another company.
Real World: ENISA
The European Network and Information Security Agency
(ENISA), based in Greece, promotes cybersecurity best
practices. Within the ENISA website, you will find a broad
range of papers and reports on a variety of security topics.
Improving Physical Security through Colocation

By using colocated, replicated hardware and software, cloud
solution providers reduce many threats to IT resources.
Key Terms
References
Primary:
Jamsa, K. A. (2013). Cloud computing: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS,
virtualization, business models, mobile, security and more.
Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Secondary:
Erl, T., Mahmood, Z., & Puttini, R. (2014). Cloud computing:
concepts, technology, & architecture. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
32

School of Computer & Information Sciences
ITS-532 Cloud Computing
Chapter 8 – Virtualization
Content from:
Primary Textbook: Jamsa, K. A. (2013). Cloud computing:
SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, virtualization, business models, mobile,
security and more. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Secondary Textbook: Erl, T., Mahmood, Z., & Puttini, R.
(2014). Cloud computing: concepts, technology, & architecture.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
1
Learning Objectives
Define and describe virtualization.
Discuss the history of virtualization.
Describe various types of virtualization.
List the pros and cons of virtualization.
Identify applications that are well suited, as well as those that
are not suited, for virtualization.
Describe why companies should employ virtualization.
Virtualization Defined
The use of hardware and software to create the perception that
one or more entities exist, although the entities, in actuality, are
not physically present.
Using virtualization, we can make one server appear to be
many, a desktop computer appear to be running multiple
operating systems simultaneously, a network connection appear

to exist, or a vast amount of disk space or a vast number of
drives to be available.
Server Virtualization
Making one server appear as many. Each virtual server may run
the same or different operating systems.
Server virtualization provides greater CPU utilization, a smaller
equipment footprint, less power consumption, and support for
multiple operating systems.
Desktop Virtualization
Allows a user to switch between multiple operating systems on
the same computer. (An operating system that resides within a
virtualized environment is known as a guest operating system.)
Some desktop virtualization techniques can provide an
operating system environment on demand.
Desktop virtualization provides support for multiple operating
systems, which is very convenient for software developers,
testers, and help desk support staff.
Virtualization Technologies
Virtual Machines can be created by Operating Systems as shown
in Figure 5.8 or with Hardware as shown in Figure 5.9.
Operating system virtualization can provide more flexibility

while hardware based virtualization can provide increased
performance.
6
(Erl, 2014)
Figure 5.8
Figure 5.9
Virtual Networks
Create the illusion that a user is connected directly to a
company network and resources, although no such physical
connection may exist.
Virtual networks are sometimes called virtual private networks
or VPNs. Using a VPN, users can connect to a network and
access the network resources from any Internet-connected
computer.
Virtual networks let network administrators to segment a
network, making different departments such as management,
development, and sales appear to have their own separate
networks.
Virtual Storage
Provides users (and applications) with access to scalable and
redundant physical storage through the use of abstract, or
logical, disk drives or file systems, or a database interface.

Virtual Memory
Virtual memory combines RAM with a page file on disk to
create the illusion, to running programs, of the existence of a
vast amount of RAM.
Advantages of Virtual Memory
A running program (process) appears to have unlimited
memory.
The operating system can easily manage several different
programs, running at the same time, and keep each program’s
data and instructions secure.
The operating system can take advantage of disk storage, which
is considerably less expensive than RAM.
Disadvantage of Virtual Memory
The disadvantage of virtual memory is that the paging process
(the process of moving instructions and data between RAM and
disk) adds overhead, mostly because disk drives are much
slower than RAM.

Original Servers
Server computers originally required their own chassis, disk,
power supply, and fan. Servers consumed considerable power,
took up considerable space, and generated considerable heat
within the data center.
Green Computing
Power off devices when they are not in use.
Power up energy-intensive devices, such as laser printers, only
when needed.
Use notebooks when possible instead of desktops.
Use the computer’s built-in power management features.
Minimize unnecessary printing.
Dispose of e-waste (devices, ink cartridges, monitors, and so
on) in compliance with government regulations.
Blade Servers
The blade server is designed to fit within a rack with other
blade servers. This reduces the server’s physical footprint,
makes the server easier to cool, and reduces the server’s power
consumption.

The Problem
Most servers today are either very busy, running at a high level
of CPU utilization, or are idle a significant portion of the time,
waiting for something to do.
Load Balancing
Using load balancing, the IT staff can supply the number of
servers necessary to meet the server workload at a given time.
Server Virtualization
Through virtualization, a single physical server can be made to
look like multiple separate servers, potentially running different
operating systems.
Microsoft Hyper-V
Microsoft servers now utilize an underlying technology the
company refers to as Hyper-V to allow administrators to create
virtual servers.
Advantages of Hyper-V
The ability to consolidate servers and increase CPU utilization
Enhanced business continuity and disaster recovery
Ease of deploying testing and support environments

Enhanced support for Windows-based client virtualization
Improved load balancing
Ability to move live virtual machines from one physical server
to another on the fly for load balancing and scalability
VMware ESXi
VMware is one of the best-known providers of virtualization
solutions. For companies that need to support multiple operating
systems within a virtual-server environment, Vmware ESXi
provides the solution.
ESXi provides the following:
Support for multiple operating systems
Server consolidation
Automated resource management to drive disaster recovery and
service-level agreements
Detail cost-reporting services
Automated load balancing
Centralized management and administration of virtual servers
and the underlying machines
Virtual Desktop
The term for a desktop computer that runs two or more
operating systems.
Desktop virtualization allows a desktop computer to run two or
more operating systems at the same time and allows a user to
quickly switch between the systems.

Advantages of Virtual Desktops
A single desktop computer can simultaneously run multiple
operating systems.
There is reduced need for duplicate hardware.
Less power is consumed.
Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Tools
Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) suite
Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V)
Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V)
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS)
Microsoft User State Virtualization (USV)
Windows Thin computer
VMware View
A tool for providing virtual desktops on demand. Using View,
system administrators can centralize the on-demand delivery of
an operating system and user-assigned applications.
Advantages of Vmware View
Simplified desktop operating system and application
management

Automated desktop provisioning (account generation)
Virtual-desktop image management
Support for a variety of client platforms
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
VPN software uses a secure Internet connection to give the user
the illusion that he or she is physically connected to the remote
network from his or her current location.
Virtual Network
Virtual local-area network (VLAN), which uses special routers
to segment part of the physical network in such a way that the
group appears to have its own private network.
Data Storage Virtualization
Data storage virtualization hides the physical storage device or
devices from the logical presentation that users or applications
use to access the space.

Advantages of Cloud-Based Storage
Scalable disk storage space on demand
The ability to pay as you go for the needed storage
Behind-the-scenes backup and data replication
Support for common operating systems
Access from anywhere, anytime, and essentially any device
Ease of document sharing
Disadvantages of Cloud-Based Storage
Some users are not comfortable with their data residing in the
cloud.
Cloud-based file access is slower than local file access due to
network overhead.
Not All Applications Are Appropriate for Virtualization
Applications with unique hardware requirements: If an
application requires a unique device or hardware device driver,
the virtualization software may be unable to support the device.
Graphics-intensive applications: If an application is graphics
intensive, such as a 3-D modeling program, the virtual device
drivers may slow down the I/O processing to an unacceptable
level.

Motivation to Virtualize
Increased device utilization (particularly CPU utilization)
Decreased device footprint
Decreased power consumption
Simplified operating system and application administration
Ease of software provisioning and patch releases
Device and storage scalability
Increased user access to key resources
Motivation to Virtualize
Continued
Increased flexibility in supporting multiple operating system
environments
Improved use and management of software licenses
Improved utilization reporting, which leads to improved
capacity planning
Improved disaster recovery and business continuity
Disadvantages of Virtualization
New staff or staff training may be required to understand the
virtualization process.
Not all applications are well suited for virtualization.
The virtualization process adds slight overhead, which will

make some applications run more slowly.
Key Terms
References
Primary:
Jamsa, K. A. (2013). Cloud computing: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS,
virtualization, business models, mobile, security and more.
Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Secondary:
Erl, T., Mahmood, Z., & Puttini, R. (2014). Cloud computing:
concepts, technology, & architecture. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
34

Running head APPLICATIONS RELATIVE TO COURSE OBJECTIVES .docx

Running head APPLICATIONS RELATIVE TO COURSE OBJECTIVES .docx

More Related Content

Similar to Running head APPLICATIONS RELATIVE TO COURSE OBJECTIVES .docx (20)

More from toddr4 (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Running head APPLICATIONS RELATIVE TO COURSE OBJECTIVES .docx