Cloud Practitioner Flashcards
What is Cloud Computing?
On-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user.
What are the deployment models of the cloud?
- Private Cloud - used by single organization, not exposed to public. Org has complete control. Security for sensitive apps. Meets specific business needs.
- Public Cloud - AWS, Google Cloud, Azure. Owned operated by 3rd party provider.
- Hybrid Cloud - Mix of private and public. Some servers on premise, some extend capabilities to cloud. Control over sensitive assets in private infra. Flexibility / cost effectiveness of public cloud.
What are the five characteristics of cloud computing?
- On-demand self service - provision resources and use them w/o human interaction from service provider.
- Broad nnetwork access - resources available over the network, can be accessed by diverse client platforms.
- Multi-tenancy and resource pooling - multiple customers can share same infra / apps with security and privacy.
- Rapid elasticity / scalability - Automatically & quickly acquire and dispose resources when needed. Scale based on demand.
- Measured service - pay exactly what you use.
What are the six advantages of Cloud Computing?
- Trade capital expense (CAPEX) for operational expense (OPEX) - pay on-demand: don’t own hardware; reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) & Operation Expense (OPEX)
- Benefit from massive economies of scale - Prices are reduced as AWS is more efficient due to large scale.
- Stop guessing capacity - scale based on actual measured usage.
- Increase speed and agility.
- Stop spending money running and maintaining data centers.
- Go global in minutes - leverage AWS global infra.
What problems does the Cloud solve?
- Flexibility: Change resource types when needed.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Pay as you go, for what you use.
- Scalability: Accommodate larger loads by making hardware stronger or adding additional nodes.
- Elasticity: Ability to scale out and scale-in when needed.
- High-availability and fault-tolerance: build across data centers.
- Agility: rapidly develop, test, and launch software applications.
What are the 3 types of Cloud Computing?
- Infra as a Service (IaaS) - Building blocks for cloud IT. Networking, computers, data storage. Highest level of flexibility, easy parallel w/ traditional on-premises IT.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Removes the need for your org to manage underlying infra; focus on deployment and management of apps.
- Software as a Service (SaaS) - Completed product that is run and managed by the service provider.
What are AWS Regions?
A cluster of data centers in an area in the world. US-East(Ohio) , Africa(Cape Town), Asia Pacific (Hong Kong), Asia Pacific (Seoul)
How do you choose an AWS Region?
Compliance with data governance and legal requirements - data never leaves a region w/o explicit permission.
Proximity to customers - reduced latency.
Service Availability - not all regions have all services.
Pricing - prices varies from region to region.
What is an “AWS Availability Zone”?
An availability zone is a discreet data center w/ redundant power, networking, connectivity. Isolated from each other (isolated from disasters). Connected with high bandwidth, ultra-low latency networking: they form an AWS Region.
Shared Responsibility Model - What is it?
Defines customer’s responsibility vs AWS’ responsibility. Customer is responsible for security, data, operating systems, network/firewall configurations.
AWS is responsible for security OF the cloud - all their infra, hardware, software,
IAM Policy Structure - what is it?
Version, Id (optional), Statements
What is the structure of a “statement” in an IAM policy?
Sid - identifier for the statement (optional)
Effect - Allow / Deny
Principal - Account/user/role to which policy is applied to
Action - List of actions the policy allows/denies.
Resource - list of resources to which action is applied.
Condition - condition for when policy is in effect (optional).
How can you protect IAM user accounts?
Using IAM - Password Policy (min length, complexity, reuse, expiration)
Multi Factor Authentication - MFA.
What are the MFA device options in AWS?
Virtual MFA device - IE Google Authenticator, Authy
Univeral 2nd Factor Security Key (U2F)
Hardware Key Fob
Hardware Key Fob MFA Device for AWS GovCloud (US)
What is AWS SDK?
AWS Software Development Kit - language-specific set of libraries / api which enable you to programmatically manage AWS services.
What are IAM roles?
Allows services to perform actions on your behalf.
What are the IAM Security tools?
- IAM Credentials Report (account-level) - a report that lists all your account’s users and the status of their various creds.
- IAM Access Advisor (user-level) shows the service permissions granted to a user and when those services were last accessed.