Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Cloud Adoption Analysis and Cloud Service Provider (CSP) Recommendation | FERC
Type: Case Study
Department: Data Governance Division (DGA)
Agency: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Problem
FERC currently manages data set computations using on premise infrastructure and various departments relaying on its rapidly growing 14 TiB data warehouse for analytical tasks to be consumed enterprise wide. In order to meet future demands for faster deployment, easy adaptability and quick launch of analytical reports commission wide, DGD considered migrating some of its workloads to cloud environments. Akira Technologies was tasked to perform cloud adoption analysis and recommend the approach for suitable Cloud Service Provider (CSP).
Solutions
Akira conducted a CSP analysis based on the following factors; type of workloads being managed (Linux vs. windows), data set types, networking, security during transport, enterprise vendor agreements, IAM security and ATO requirements, and lastly, security standards and compliance certifications (PCI-DSS, HIPAA/HITECH, FedRAMP, GDPR, FIPS 120-2, and NIS).
CSP Selection Criteria:
- Flexibility, features and adaptability
- Data ownership with shared responsibility model
- Unlimited access & supply of resources
- Logging, monitoring, alerting and mitigation.
- Fed ramp medium, low and high certifications
- CSP market share
- Unlimited supply of storage capacity
- Pay as you go model, Bring own license, license mobility
- Lift and swift, SaaS, IaaS, PaaS service models support
- Application migration support capabilities
- Hybrid cloud model support capabilities
- Security standards and compliance
Outcomes
Azure Cloud Service Provider. Top reasons for this option selection:
- O365 is already running in azure cloud
- 90% of its databases are SQL
- IAM and security tools provided by MSFT
- Employees adaptation to cloud is easy due to native MSFT resources support
- Enterprise agreements with MSFT with BYOL and technical support
Capabilities Shown
- Networking
- Design & Architecture
- Data Sets Analytical Platforms
