Altriva Solutions is a company offering professional services for other firms or organizations in developing solutions in customer relationship management. The company based in Bellevue, United States utilizes customized and packaged software in delivering the solutions on-premise for their clients. It uses a process-focused approach in implementing the solutions, i.e. identifying the key areas of opportunity within the clients networks and optimize the interactions between the customers, partners, suppliers and departments. The company has introduced advisory and support services for the firms which request access to the specialized resources. With the increasing demand for such services, the company needs to increase its margins such as the number of employees, enhancing its administrative and support services and reduce business costs. As the companies needs keep on increasing, the firms which request for such professional services adopt new business objectives, processes and reporting needs. The company opted to design hosted or cloud-based models to help in delivering the advisory and support services (He et al., 2013).
The company chose to formulate a plan to address the increasing number of clients and various requests. It intends to extend its hosted models so that the firms can access the service from their premises. The hosted models would have personalized services that would target the specific business needs of the clients. The online advisory and support services can be extended to other international companies that might be interested in the services. The firms would be able to access the customer relationship management services without the need to create an in-house IT department i.e. traditional IT infrastructure and avoid huge upfront investments. Altriva Solutions would be able to provide flexibility and better customer access to the services. Besides, the company should have backup and recovery resources instead of relying on their website and hosted models.Phases of Transition
Mideast Medical Inc. will need the expertise of Altriva Solutions to overcome key information technology challenges faced by the organization. The use of Altriva Solutions expertise in cloud-based information technology solutions will improve Mideast Medical Inc. services and also increase the ease of assessing information. At large, the transition of the organization from using a virtual data center to the cloud will increase convenience and also make decision making easy which will also have a significant impact on the patient safety and healthcare standards (Chen et al., 2017).
Assessment of the organization needs
Mideast Medical Inc. should assess its needs for a cloud data center instead of the virtual data center. Assessing the needs helps the healthcare organization to plan and place effective strategies that meet the organization information needs. Mideast Medical Inc. seeks to introduce new technology that will improve information access and reduce costs incurred by the organization. Communication between Mideast Medical Inc. faces high costs in linking its branches, and there is the need for a cloud information technology for the organization to improve inter-branch information access and reduce the cost of sharing information. Secondly, Mideast Medical Inc. seeks to make information accessible remotely by personal users such as patients and healthcare stakeholders, for instance, the insurance companies. Online services through cloud technology will increase geographical coverage and services offered by Mideast Medical Inc. to an international service offering organization through cloud technology which increases the capacity of the organization to offer information to its patients and stakeholders. Through cloud technology, Mideast Medical Inc. seeks to improve convenience of its online services that are regularly interrupted in its current virtual data center that has to require regular maintenance. Regarding safety, Mideast Medical Inc. will need cloud technology to improve the safety of information and also the ability to recover information (Doukas et al., 2010).
Planning
Planning is an important phase for the transition of Mideast Medical Inc. from a virtual data center user to a user of cloud solutions. Planning refers to the organization of activities, gathering necessary resources for the project and deciding from which organization to access the information technology services required. Planning is essential because without proper planning the project can fall off track which will affect the organization normal activities and services. After using a virtual data center, Mideast Medical Inc. will need to transform its services into cloud services in which the organization will enjoy more control and also security for its information and that of their clients. This transition will require careful planning to ensure that all the stakeholders are ready to ensure a smooth transition from the use of a virtual data center to cloud technology (Rolim et al., 2010).
Creation of a prototype
After installing a virtual data center, Mideast Medical Center should not jump to establishing the cloud services but instead should create a prototype and use some of its branches before rolling out the program to all its branches and organization operations. New technology requires time and training of the employees to adopt to change. Also, the patients will also need time to adopt to this critical change hence, the need for a prototype and use of the technology in limited organization branches. The use of the prototype will enable the organization to identify its key weaknesses, strengths, and opportunities which will enable the organization to implement more effective cloud-based services (Doukas et al., 2010).
Implementation
The implementation phase will only be carried out after assessing the need for virtual data center and transition to cloud-based data storage. There is need to train the employees and prepare them for the change which will ensure a smooth transition. Also, it is important for Mideast Medical Inc. to create awareness amongst its existing and potential customers to ensure that they are aware of the change and prepared too (Chen et al., 2017).
Post implementation assessment
After each transition, it will be important for Mideast Medical Inc. to carry out an assessment to evaluate the ability of the information storage type to meet its information storage and service delivery needs. The organization should only settle on cloud or virtual data center if it meets the organization needs.
Virtualization technology
Virtualization technology is the creation of a virtual version of something such as storage, network and a server. Mideast Medical Inc. will need a virtual server from Altriva Solutions which will help the organization to store data and information on the web hence, increasing access and also saving on the cost of creation an actual server. Server virtualization will be necessary for Mideast Medical Inc. to create an effective virtual and cloud-based data storage system. Server virtualization uses a hypervisor which is a software layer that can be used to emulate key hardware necessary for the existence of a cloud data center. A virtual server has a guest operating system, unlike a computer that can be accessed remotely from anywhere by interacting with hardware or computer device. The existence of the guest operating systems allows greater flexibility, control and isolation which remove the dependency of the Mideast Medical Inc. on its personnel to provide information to the clients. On the other hand, storage virtualization technology is very important and refers to the ability to pool together different physical storage or data into a common network storage device managed by a central console. Data virtualization services and technology offered by Altriva Solutions will enable the organization to manage data, access location, format and also improve access through remote logins. Finally, desktop virtualization is the virtualization of a workstation instead of a server. Desktop virtualization allows the user to access the desktop remotely (Chen et al., 2017).
Application layers of IT infrastructure
There are many application layers in virtualization of data and the use of cloud solutions. Mideast will need to improve on different information technology application layers that are necessary for the implementation of a virtual and cloud data center (Doukas et al., 2010).
Hardware layer
Under this layer, Mideast Medical Inc. will need advice from Altriva Solutions on the best hardware that can be used to create a virtual data center as well as the smooth transition to a cloud center. Hardware includes; laptops, desktops, and servers. It is important for the organization to use a server which is more ideal for creating a cloud and virtual data center.
Internet security layer
This layer is important because it regulates the Mideast Medical Inc. access to the data center which further improves security. Internet security layer includes the decision of access, user roles, and Identifications of the users.
Network layer
Without proper network which can regulate access to information a virtual or cloud-based data storage is not viable. Network layer includes the LAN, WiFi, and WAN which will be used by the healthcare institution. It is important for Mideast Medical Inc. to use WiFi network which will improve data sharing access to cloud and virtual data through existing hardware layer such as laptops, desktops and mobile phones (Chen et al., 2017).
External security layer
Mideast Medical Inc. will use firewalls and portals to protect information and ensure only authorized personnel and clients can access information from its cloud server.
Cloud models and features
Cloud hosting models are differentiated by the type of proprietorship, size, and access.
Public cloud
A public cloud is a type of cloud hosting and deployment model that allows public access to the information. In this type of cloud deployment, Altriva Solutions renders services and infrastructure to various clients. The customers such as Mideast Medical Inc. do not have much control and distinguishability with other cloud customers. The level of security in this cloud deployment model is, however; questionable hence, this deployment approach is not ideal for Mideast Medical Inc.
Private cloud
Private cloud, on the other hand, is a cloud deployment method that is more secure and it is safeguarded by a firewall which can be regulated by Information Technology specialists in Mideast Medical Inc. Private cloud is ideal for Mideast Medical Inc. because it is more secure and permits only authorized users as well as giving the organization such as Mideast Medical Inc. more control over their data (Chen et al., 2017).
Cloud service management processes
Cloud service management is very important for Mideast Medical Inc. because they help to align cloud data and service management to ensure easy access to information. Cloud service management allows optimum services, continuity, and efficiency in accessing virtualized data. Through better cloud service management Mideast Medical Inc. can help differentiate itself from other healthcare institutions. Cloud service management processes include; cloud capacity management, availability management, incident management and configuration management. Without these management processes, it would not be possible for Mideast Medical Inc. to deliver quality and consistent virtualized data (Doukas et al., 2010).
References
Chen, L., Qiu, M., Dai, W., & Hassan, H. (2017). An efficient cloud storage system for telehealth services. The Journal of Supercomputing, 1-17.
Doukas, C., Pliakas, T., &...
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