Project 2:Company profile:Don & Associates, a financial consulting company that provides services to small- and medium-sized companies. Because the company is looking to expand into neighboring states within the Northeast region, its leaders have tasked you with determining if cloud computing is a viable solution to the need for infrastructure.Project ScenarioDonyelle, the company owner, likes the idea of going to the cloud but wants to learn more about the best cloud solution for the company. She wants you to investigate further and has asked you to prepare a narrated PowerPoint presentation that will be presented to company leadership at the next meeting.In this project, you will develop a detailed comparative analysis of cloud vendors and their services. A comparative analysis provides an item-by-item comparison of two or more alternatives, processes, products, or systems. In this case, you will compare the pros/cons of the cloud service providers in terms of security, ease of use, service models, services/tools they provide, pricing, technical support, cloud service providers' infrastructure, and architecture model.You will present your findings to the owner of the company in a narrated PowerPoint presentation with 10 to 20 slides. Use the Cloud Presentation Template attached. Presentation GuidelinesYour presentation should be comprised of the following:One to two slides on the company profile.One to two slides on what the company is struggling with.One to two slides on current infrastructure.Three to six slides on the top three cloud services providers. Include their service models (i.e., SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), services/tools/solutions (i.e., compute, storage, database, developer tools, analytics tools, networking and content delivery, customer engagement), pricing, accessibility, technical support for companies, global infrastructure.One to two slides on a recommended cloud service (RECOMMEND AMAZON AWS) provider based on the comparative analysis and the cloud vendor's abilities to meet the service needs of the company.One slide on the conclusion.All slides must be narrated by you, the student.How Will My Work Be Evaluated?As a professional, you will likely make presentations to customers, client audiences, and management. By summarizing your results and recommendations in an effective presentation, you are demonstrating how you use your technical knowledge to convey your ideas to others in a professional setting. Your ability to express recommendations to decision makers with the right mix of technical detail in an accepted format is an important workplace and career skill.The following evaluation criteria aligned to the competencies will be used to grade your assignment:1.1.1: Articulate the main idea and purpose of a communication.1.1.2: Support the main idea and purpose of a communication.2.1.1: Identify the issue or problem under consideration.2.2.2: Evaluate sources of information on a topic for relevance and credibility.2.3.1: State conclusions or solutions clearly and precisely.10.1.1: Identify the problem to be solved.10.1.2: Gather project requirements to meet stakeholder needs.10.1.3: Define the specifications of required technologies.13.1.1: Create documentation appropriate to the stakeholder.13.2.1: Evaluate vendor recommendations in the context of organization requirements.Project 1 Executive Summary attached. (Just an FYI)

Step 1: Research Risks Associated With Cloud AdoptionThe first step in assessing risk in cloud computing will be to identify and describe risk concepts and cloud computing risk factors associated with cloud adoption. As a software as a service (SaaS) company considering an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud service provider for your hosting needs, consider third party outsourcing issuesand the generally accepted best practices for cloud adoption and review relevant cloud risk case studies. You should also consider best practices for cloud adoption.As part of the risk management process, identify and describe other types of risk, such as risks associated with having a service-level agreement (SLA). An example of a potential risk could be if your company is obligated to protect personal information, and then the cloud provider that you use suffers a security breach exposing that personal information.Here, identify and describe other types of risks or potential liability issues that apply to BallotOnline and discuss them with your colleagues in the Discussion: Risk forum.You will incorporate your research into your final report.Step 2: Identify the Most Appropriate Guidelines for Managing RisksIn order to identify guidelines applicable to your company's industry, you must have an understanding of the different types of risk management guidelines that exist and are frequently applicable in cloud environments.There are several cybersecurity standards applicable to cloud computing environments such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, ISO standards, and US federal government standards (DoD/FIPS), as well as several major sets of risk guidelines for dealing with the risks involved. Also, there are organizations such as the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) that recommend best practices for managing risks.Review the different guidelines and determine which are most appropriate for BallotOnline. For example, NIST has responsibility for developing a number of elections industry guidelineswithin the United States.Identify why those guidelines are most appropriate and compile these items into a brief (one page or less) recommendation and justification of your choice. Your recommendation will also be incorporated into your final report in the final step.Submit your recommendation to Sophia to review using the dropbox below.Step 3: Identify Potential Privacy Issues and Mitigation MeasuresNow that you have identified the guidelines most applicable to your organization, it is time to discuss privacy protections that may apply.BallotOnline is now a global organization and may need to contend with several sets of privacy laws since these laws vary from country to country.Sophia has recommended that you focus on European Union (EU) privacy requirements for now, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), since those are considered to be the most challenging for compliance. Many companies opt to host data for their European customers entirely within facilities in the European Union, and the companies implement restrictions to prevent data for EU citizens from crossing borders into non-EU zones. This is the approach that you have been asked to take and where you should focus your efforts. Note that some cloud providers, such as Amazon, have received special approval from EU authorities to permit data transfer outside of the EU.Research EU privacy requirements, identify the requirements that apply to your project and why they apply, and compile your recommendations for complying with these requirements. These will be incorporated into your final report.Step 4: Create Risk Management MatrixNow that you have identified and described the types of risks that may apply to your organization, create a risk management matrix to assess/analyze that risk and make recommendations for risk mitigation measures.This Sample Risk Assessment for Cloud Computing will give you an example of a completed risk matrix.Use the risk management matrix template to identify risks and write a brief summary explaining how to understand the data. Submit it to Sophia for feedback using the dropbox below.Risk Management MatrixWhen conducting a risk assessment for cloud computing in the elections industry, you will categorize risks based on the likelihood of an incident occurring, and the seriousness of the impact.The image below shows an example of how to categorize risks with a risk matrix.Risk MatrixStep 5: Describe Cloud Security IssuesNow that you have completed the risk analysis, you can start to identify cloud and network security issues that may apply in BallotOnline's operating environment, including data in transit vulnerabilities and multifactor authentication.Consider cloud computing risks, network security design, information security, data classifications, and identity management issues. Your findings will be incorporated into your final report.Step 6: Examine the US Legal System and Intellectual Property LawsNow that you are familiar with security issues, examine and review the US legal and justice systems. Since BallotOnline is a software as a service (SaaS) company based in the United States and serving a customer base in the United States, you need to understand how the legal and justice systems work in the United States. Your basic understanding of these systems is crucial for understanding the complexities of the legal system in cyberspace, where cloud-based systems reside.As a practitioner working in the cloud computing field, you should also have an understanding of the complexities of intellectual property law and cyberspace law, including how to identify different venues and methods for resolving disputes (such as the court system, arbitration, mediation), how to define and negotiate cloud hosting agreements to avoid potential cyberspace law issues, how to discuss the regulation of cyberspace, and how to handle electronic agreements and digital signatures.To gain a better understanding of how cyberspace laws are applied to real issues, participate in the analysis of a relevant legal case with your colleagues in a forum titled Discussion: US Legal System and Cyberspace Law.In addition to the discussion board, your findings will also be incorporated into your Final Risk and Compliance Report for the BallotOnline executives.Step 7: Use Frameworks to Analyze Complex Legal and Compliance IssuesIn the previous step, you examined the US legal and justice systems as a building block for understanding the complexities of the legal system in cyberspace, where cloud-based systems reside.There are several frameworks for analyzing compliance issues used to analyze these complex issues. To provide a manageable set of recommendations to the executives, review the frameworks and select the one that is most helpful to use for analyzing these complex issues.Step 8: Analyze General, Industry, Geographic, Data, and Cloud-Specific Compliance IssuesIn the previous step, you examined the complexities of law in cyberspace. In this step, you will expand your understanding of legal and compliance issues related to the cloud by investigating industry-specific compliance issues, geographic-specific compliance issues such as privacy, and cloud-specific compliance issues to determine which are applicable to BallotOnline.You will also need to analyze data compliance issues applicable to companies operating in the European Union, including the recent GDPR regulations, and determine how BallotOnline can be compliant. The organization is concerned about EU compliance issues because the laws there are the most restrictive that BallotOnline will encounter.Prepare a two- to three-page summary of the data compliance issues that are applicable to BallotOnline and determine how BallotOnline can be compliant. This will be part of your final risk and compliance assessment report.Step 9: Create a Proposal for a Compliance ProgramIn previous steps, you have identified potential legal and compliance requirements that BallotOnline may face in migrating to a cloud computing model. Now, you need to determine how BallotOnline can comply with those requirements.Create a high-level proposal for a compliance program for BallotOnline that enables the organization and its employees to conduct itself in a manner that is in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Management has asked you to model the proposal on existing compliance programs for other companies that have migrated to the cloud.Use the Proposal for Compliance Program template to record your work and upload it to the dropbox below for feedback. Existing Compliance ProgramsWhen developing a compliance program, many smaller organizations will find that it is sufficient and most cost-effective to leverage existing compliance program materials provided by organizations such as the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics, Association of Corporate Counsel, Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), and The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO).Larger organizations may need to have a third-party organization help to develop customized compliance programs to meet complex situations.ResourcesUS Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap: Requirements AssessmentAn Evaluation of the Cybersecurity Policies for the United States Health & Human Services Department: Criteria, Regulations, and ImprovementsInformation Security: Federal Guidance Needed to Address Control Issues with Implementing Cloud ComputingThe proposal will be one to two pages in length and should take the form of a high-level outline or flowchart showing the different components and relationships among the components. Include the following elements that are generally found in an effective program:Identification of company employees who have oversight over the program, their roles, and responsibilitiesList of high-level policies and/or procedures that may be requiredList of high-level training and education programs that may be requiredRelationships between components of the program, including (but not limited to):communication channelsdependenciesIdentification of enforcement mechanism Identification of monitoring and auditing mechanismsHow will responses to compliance issues be handled, and how will corrective action plans be developed?How are risk assessments handled?Step 10: Write the Final Risk Assessment and Compliance ReportAs you have learned, there are a number of legal and compliance requirements associated with shifting to a cloud computing model.It's time to put everything together in a seven- to 10-page report for BallotOnline executives: summarizing the risk assessment and mitigation as well as legal and compliance requirements associated with moving to the cloud, outlining your recommended action plans for meeting those requirements, and developing a high-level proposal for a compliance program to avoid breaches of the requirements.Use the final risk and compliance report template to complete your report. When you are finished, upload your work to the dropbox below. Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.1.1: Organize document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes understanding and meets the requirements of the assignment.1.2: Develop coherent paragraphs or points so that each is internally unified and so that each functions as part of the whole document or presentation.2.1: Identify and clearly explain the issue, question, or problem under critical consideration.7.1: Examine legal and regulatory requirements.7.2: Examine industry best-practices and standards.8.1: Assess liability issues associated with cloud adoption.8.2: Assess network security and privacy risks associated with cloud infrastructure.8.3: Assess management and operational risks associated with cloud.Final Risk Assessment and Compliance Report (seven- to 12-page report) This report should include the following components: Title Page Include: for whom you are preparing the document, the title, the date prepared, and your name as the preparer of the documentExecutive Summary Include: the purpose of the report, intended audience, and an explanation of the importance of risk and compliance assessment in cloud adoptionRisk AnalysisInclude: written summary of the relevant risks identified, the Risk Management Matrix (from Steps 1, 4)Risk Management Guidelines Used (from Step 2)Include: guidelines that are most applicable to this scenario and why Potential Privacy Issues and Mitigation Measures (from Step 3)Include: guidelines that are most applicable to this scenario and why Relevant Security Issues (from Step 5)Applicable Laws, Regulations, and Frameworks (from Steps 6, 7)Compliance Requirements (from Step 8)Include: geographic-specific compliance requirements for the United States and European Union election industry-specific compliance issues and data compliance requirements Proposal for a Compliance Program (from Step 9)