Describe Cloud Concepts

Question 1

Define cloud computing

Answer 1

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services (compute, networking, storage) over the internet, enabling faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

Question 2

Describe the shared responsibility model

Answer 2

How some responsibilities are taken by the customer, and some are taken by the cloud provider. In an on-premises data center, the customer owns all responsibilities. More responsibility is taken by the cloud provider in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), then platform as a service (PaaS) and Software as a Service where the cloud provider has the most responsibilities.

Question 3

Define cloud models: public

Answer 3

Customer does not have to maintain physical hardware or networking; those are owned by the cloud provider. Cloud provider provides resources and services to customers via a secure network (typically the internet).

Think of the public cloud as riding the bus: you pay a predetermined fee when you use it, but do not have to pay for the bus, maintenance, gas, etc.

Question 4

Define cloud models: private

Answer 4

A cloud environment created by an organization in their dataceter. Does not provide access to users outside of the organization. An example is GM’s Galileo.

Question 5

Define cloud models: hybrid

Answer 5

A combination of the public and private cloud.

Example: Square Space. Square space provides the templates, but a customer may choose to use their own database.

Question 6

What are three appropriate use cases for the public cloud model?

Answer 6

1. For when you need a large amount of additional resources for a short period of time (ie a new vehicle launch drives spikes in traffic to GM websites for a short amount of time)
2. Short term projects: dont need to worry about provisioning hardware, software, etc.
3. Data archiving that does not require frequent access.
4. Data backup and disaster reovery
5. Web hosting

Question 7

What are the appropriate use cases for the private cloud model?

Answer 7

When you need complete control over resources and security

Question 8

What are the appropriate use cases for the hybrid cloud model?

Answer 8

When you need the control of the private cloud, with the scaling of resources and other benefits of the public cloud.

Question 9

Describe the consumption-based cloud model

Answer 9

Cloud customers only pay for what they use. Ie you pay more for a VM with 8 cpus then you would for a VM with 3 CPUs.

Benefits: Better cost prediction

Question 10

What is the cloud pricing model?

Answer 10

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet by using a pay-as-you-go pricing model. You typically pay only for the cloud services you use, which helps you:

Plan and manage your operating costs.
Run your infrastructure more efficiently.
Scale as your business needs change.

Question 11

Describe the benefits of high availability and scalability in the cloud

Answer 11

High Availability: Azure Service Level Agreements guarantee that the service stays up despite network disruptions or other events that would disrupt an application. These SLAs vary by the Azure service.

Scalability: Can increase resources for a short period of time to meet project requirements (think GM launches a new vehicle for preorder), then can decrease resources when traffic needs decrease. This ensures that you do not overpay for services.

Question 12

Describe the benefits of reliability and predictability in the cloud

Answer 12

Reliability: Cloud services are decentralized and hence more reliabily (if one VM fails, another can take over or if one datacenter fails, traffic is redirected).

Predictability: Both costs and performance are more predictable.

Question 13

Describe the benefits of security and governance (and compliance) in the cloud

Answer 13

security:
If an organization wants complete control of security, the cloud provider provides the physical resources but lets the organization manage the operating systems and installed software

If you want patches and maintenance taken care of automatically, the cloud provider can do that as well.

And because the cloud is intended as an over-the-internet delivery of IT resources, cloud providers are typically well suited to handle things like distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, making your network more robust and secure.

governance and compliance:
Templates are used to ensure deployed resources meet corporate standards and government regulatory requirements.

Deployed resources can easily and quickly be changed if standards change.

Question 14

Describe the benefits of manageability in the cloud

Answer 14

SDMA

You can manage cloud resources like so:

Scale: Automatically scale resource deployment based on need

Deploy: Deploy resources based on a preconfigured template, removing the need for manual configuration

Monitor: Monitor the health of resources and automatically replace failing resources

Alert: Receive automatic alerts

Question 15

Describe infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Answer 15

Cloud provider handles:

Physical hosts
Physical network
Physical datacenter.

The customer is responsible for everything else.

Question 16

Describe the five areas of responsibility for the cloud provider for platform as a service (PaaS)

Answer 16

Cloud provider responsibility:

All physical computing resources (IaaS)

Operating system

Development tools

Database management

Business Analytics

Question 17

Describe software as a service (SaaS)

Answer 17

Cloud provider is responsible for everything except:

Information and data

Devices (mobile and PC) used to access hosted applications and apps

Accounts and identities

Cloud provider is partially responsible for:

identity and directory infrastructure.

An example is cloud-based apps accessed over the internet (like Microsoft Office 365)

Question 18

Identify appropriate use cases for Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Answer 18

Lift-and-shift migration: You’re standing up cloud resources similar to your on-prem datacenter, and then simply moving the things running on-prem to running on the IaaS infrastructure.

Testing and development: You have established configurations for development and test environments that you need to rapidly replicate. You can stand up or shut down the different environments rapidly with an IaaS structure, while maintaining complete control.

Question 19

Identify appropriate use cases for platform as a service (PaaS)

Answer 19

Provides:

Development framework: PaaS provides a framework that developers can build upon to develop or customize cloud-based applications. Similar to the way you create an Excel macro, PaaS lets developers create applications using built-in software components. Cloud features such as scalability, high-availability, and multi-tenant capability are included, reducing the amount of coding that developers must do.

Analytics or business intelligence: Tools provided as a service with PaaS allow organizations to analyze and mine their data, finding insights and patterns and predicting outcomes to improve forecasting, product design decisions, investment returns, and other business decisions.

Question 20

Identify appropriate use cases for Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer 20

Some common scenarios for SaaS are:

Email and messaging.
Business productivity applications. (ie office 365)
Finance and expense tracking.

Question 21

What are the 10 different areas of responsibility in the Shared Responsibility Model?

Answer 21

Information and Data
Devices (Mobile and PC)
Accounts and Identities
Identity and directory infrastructure
Application
Network controls
Operating system
Physical Hosts
Physical Network
Physical Datacenter

Question 22

WHat are the two kinds of resource scaling?

Answer 22

Scaling generally comes in two varieties: vertical and horizontal. Vertical scaling is focused on increasing or decreasing the capabilities of resources (add more CPUs or RAM to the virtual machine.). Horizontal scaling is adding or subtracting the number of resources (add additional virtual machines).