Cloud concepts Flashcards
What is Azure?
Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure , is a cloud computing platform run by Microsoft. It is used for creating, hosting and scaling of applications and services through global data centers.
What type of services does Azure offer?
Many types, including Compute, Identity, Storage, Database or Software services.
What is Pay-as-you-go plan?
It allows clients to use Azure services without any license commitment or upfront purchases and only pay when they are actually used. This reduces the overhead cost of license procurement and allows better cost management across business units by leveraging the reporting capabilities of Azure subscriptions.
What are CapEx and OpEx, what is the difference between them regarding costs and how is it related to the cloud computing?
Capital Expenditure (CapEx)
= everything invested upfront: own infrastructure, hardware
= building our own datacenter
= high cost in the beginning, can be deducted over time
Example: buying servers or other HW
Operational Expenditure (OpEx)
= products and services that can be paid when used (“rented”)
= using cloud services
= expenses can be deducted immediately
example: Azure Cloud, monthly payments (rent, salaries, electricity bills, SW licences)
What are the 7 benefits of cloud services?
High Availability
Scalability
Reliability
Predictability
Security
Governance
Manageability
What is High Availability and what do Fault tolerance and Disaster recovery mean?
High Availability
= continuous functioning of the services, usually measured in percentage (the amount of time the service can be used)
example: 99.9% availability, 0.1% downtime
Fault tolerance
= the ability to respond to a failure of a component
Disaster recovery
= the ability to restore functionality after a disaster or a catastrophe
What is Scalability, Elasticity and Agility?
Scalability
= the ability to handle increased load
- vertical = scale UP (more CPU per VM = increasing capacity per unit)
- horizontal = scale OUT (more VM machines = increasing the number of units)
Elasticity
= the dynamic scalability, the ability to quickly react to changing demands related to changing workload
Agility
= the ability to quickly deploy and configure solutions when requirements change
What is cloud Reliability benefit?
Reliability
= the ability of a system to recover from failures and continue function
- achieved through global distribution and redundancy options (replicating data across multiple regions)
- functioning even in catastrophic events by automatically shifting from one region to another
What is Predictability benefit?
Predictability
= predictable cost and performance
- aimed at positive customer experience
- autoscaling, balancing traffic = adjusting resources automatically according to the usage (for example: number of accesses)
- transparent pricing, pricing calculator, trackable costs
What is Security benefit?
= system architecture designed to handle security
- fully manageable with automatic updates
- can handle DDoS attacks
What is Governance benefit?
= support of compliance with regulations
- using templates that ensure corporate standards and governmental regulations
- updates can be applied when standards change
What is Manageability benefit?
= ability to manage cloud resources
Management of the cloud:
- autoscaling options
- pre-defined templates
- automatic alerts
- health monitoring
Management in the cloud:
- Azure Portal
- CLI interface
- APIs
- PowerShell
What are the 3 cloud models?
Public cloud = Azure (most common)
Private cloud = a company’s own cloud, own data centre
Hybrid cloud = combination of both
What are the 3 cloud service types?
IaaS = Infrastructure-as-a-Service
PaaS = Platfrom-as-a-Service
SaaS = Software-as-a-Service
What is IaaS?
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
= renting hardware / infrastructure (servers, storage, virtual machines, networking)
- HW and its configuration is up to the customer
Which type of cloud service is the most flexible and why? What is the downside of it?
IaaS, because it offers full control, for example when special applications need specific system, etc.
But with big flexibility also comes the highest responsibility, so customer is responsible for all of the areas except for the physical side of the service.
What is PaaS and when it is usually used?
Platform-as-a-Service
= like Iaas plus HW is fully managed by Azure, so no HW configuration is required, which reduces the administrational effort
- Azure SQL DB, Cosmos DB, Azure App Service, Container Service
= generally it is a cloud environment for development and deployment of applications
What is SaaS?
= only using the end application (MS Office 365, Outlook, MS Planner)
- no installation, no development, only configuration
- infrastructure remains completely invisible to the customer
What are the different shares of responsibilities between customer and cloud provider in case of Iaas, PaaS and SaaS?
1) Responsibility always with the customer:
Information and data
Devices
Accounts and Identities
2) Responsibility always with the provider:
Physical hosts
Physical networks
Physical data centers
3) Responsibility varies:
A) Identity and Directory infrastructure
B) Applications
C) Network controls
D) Operating systems
IaaS: A, B, C, D - customer
PaaS: A, B, C - either customer or provider, D - provider
SaaS: A, B, C, D - provider
What is “Lift and shift” migration?
“Lift and shift,” also known as “rehosting,” is the process of migrating an exact copy of an application or workload, together with its data store and operating system (OS), from one environment to another—usually from on-premises to public or private cloud.
Which cloud service type is most suited to a “Lift and shift” migration from an on-premises datacenter to a cloud deployment and why?
IaaS
With an IaaS service type, we can approximate our on-premises environment, making a lift-and-shift transition to the cloud relatively straightforward.
What type of cloud service type would a Finance and Expense tracking solution typically be in?
SaaS
SaaS provides access to software solutions, such as finance and expense tracking, email, or ticketing systems.
Your company is only allowed to use service of the type Platform-as-a-Service. Which combination of services would they be allowed to use?
a) Container services and Load Balancers
b) Virtual machines and Azure Web Service
c) Cosmos DB and Container services
c) Cosmos DB and Container services
You need an environment to develop and deploy applications but you don’t want to have the responsibility to deal with the underlying infrastructure. Which service type would you choose?
a) IaaS
b) PaaS
c) SaaS
b) PaaS
