1 - Essential characteristics

Question 1

This characteristic means that a customer of cloud technologies (even if you are a customer of your own company’s private cloud) can provision and manage resources without the intervention of cloud-hosting administrative personnel. For example, you might deem that you need a new web server to advertise a particular product or service. You can completely provision, configure, and deploy this web server without contacting anyone responsible for hosting the cloud solution.

Answer 1

On-demand self-service

Question 2

This aspect of cloud states that your cloud resources should be available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms. These standard access approaches (such as HTTPS) promote the use of cloud by thin or thick client platforms (for example, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations).

Answer 2

Broad network access

Question 3

The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple clients using a multitenant model. This model allows multiple customers to securely use the same physical hardware of the provider. At any time, the cloud provider can use different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. You should note that this approach provides a sense of location independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources. If required, the customer is typically able to specify location at a higher level of abstraction (such as country, state, or geographical zone). Examples of resources that are typically pooled include storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth.

Answer 3

Resource pooling

Question 4

Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward in accordance with demand from customers. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time.

Answer 4

Rapid elasticity

Question 5

Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability. This is done by the provider at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service. For example, the metering might be based on storage, processing, bandwidth, or active user accounts. Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service. This is where the cloud services your IT department pays for are often compared to a utility bill. Like with the electric bill, you can be billed monthly, for just those services you used.

Answer 5

Measured service