KCA UNIVERSITY AN ACADEMIC CLOUD MODEL FOR ENHANCING OPERATIONS EFFICIENCY IN THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES GITHUA REGINA NYAMBURA 12/00836 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AT KCA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTERS DEGREE IN DATA COMMUNICATIONS NOVEMBER 2014 i DECLARATION I hereby declare that this Research Project has not been published or submitted elsewhere for the award of a degree or any other qualification. I also do declare that this is my own original work and contains no material written or published by other persons except where due reference is made and the author is duly acknowledged. Student Name: REGINA N. GITHUA Reg. No: 12/00836 Date: _________________________ I do hereby confirm that I have examined the Master's Research Project of: GITHUA REGINA NYAMBURA AND have certified that all revisions that the Research Project Panel and Examiners recommended have been adequately addressed. Date: _______________________________ ________________________________ PROFESSOR DDEMBE WILLIAMS. ii ABSTRACT The cloud computing paradigm has become an acceptable and adoptable technology in today's world. Its' an advanced technology that provisions ubiquitous computing resources such as hardware and software applications in a datacenter on a utility and pay-on-the-fly basis. The growth of cloud computing has been envisioned in many economic sectors to foster productivity and efficiency in the changing global economy. In order for organizations to retain customers and offer quality services, they have to keep abreast with changing innovations which are costly and expensive to maintain. Thus, cloud computing offers a platform for these organizations to have access to these technologies at an affordable rate as they only pay for what they have consumed. The Education sector has not been left behind in the adoption of cloud computing. Funding pressures, advances in IT field, the need to accommodate and improve the academic performance of the ever increasing population are some of the major reasons that have compelled institutions of higher learning to adopt to cloud computing services. The major objective of this research is to develop an education cloud model standard that will also make use of the existing computing infrastructure. The study also presents a review of related literature on cloud computing implementation by various research scholars who have also delved into the technology. The researcher has also explored how public cloud can be integrated with private cloud created within the institution to offer the services to the different users. The researcher has examined and analyzed the existing methodologies and highlighted how the proposed methodology will integrate all the services. If implemented, institutions will be highly reliable due to ubiquitous information that can be accessed from any location, improved data security and integrity, scalability of information and a greater return on economic value, since the institution will only pay for what it consumes. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................. i ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................... viii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background to the Study ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Definition of Terms............................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................ 6 1.4 Objectives of the Study ......................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Scope of the Study ................................................................................................................ 7 1.6 Justification of the Study ...................................................................................................... 7 1.7 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 10 2.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 10 2.1 State of the Art In Cloud Computing .................................................................................. 10 Architectural Design of a Data Center .................................................................................. 10 Distributed application framework over cloud ..................................................................... 10 Distributed File System over Cloud ...................................................................................... 11 2.1.1 Cloud Service Models ................................................................................................. 12 2.1.2 Cloud Deployment Models ......................................................................................... 13 2.1.3 Cloud Computing Application Areas........................................................................... 15 2.2 State of Practice In Cloud Computing ................................................................................ 19 2.2.1 Benefits of Cloud Computing ...................................................................................... 22 2.2.2 Issues and Challenges in the Cloud Environment........................................................ 25 2.3 Technological Advancements in the Cloud ........................................................................ 28 2.4 Critique of Literature .......................................................................................................... 29 iv CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................................. 31 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 31 3.1 Current Methodological Approaches .................................................................................. 31 3.2 Evaluation of the Methodology Approaches ...................................................................... 32 3.2.1 The Research Design .................................................................................................. 33 3.3 The Proposed Model ........................................................................................................... 33 3.4 Characteristics of the Proposed Model ............................................................................... 34 CHAPTER FOUR: CONCEPTUAL DESIGN ............................................................................ 36 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 36 4.2 Field Studies........................................................................................................................ 37 4.2.1 Educational Cloud Applications .................................................................................. 38 4.2.2 The Private Cloud Computing Reference Model ......................................................... 39 4.3 Data Inputs and Expected Outputs ...................................................................................... 40 4.4 UML of Proposed Model ................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER FIVE: IMPLEMENTATION..................................................................................... 44 5.1 Implementation ................................................................................................................... 44 5.1.1 Distribution of different Data Centers and Virtual Machines ..................................... 44 5.2 Testing................................................................................................................................. 45 5.2.1 CloudAnalyst Simulation Analysis .............................................................................. 45 CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS ......................................................................... 51 6.1 Discussion of Findings/Conclusions ..................................................................................