Introduction to Cloud Computing

Question 1

What is the NIST2011 Definition of Cloud Computing?

Answer 1

A model for enabling on-demand access to elastic resources without need for human intervention.

Question 2

What are the 5 Key Components of Cloud Computing

Answer 2

1. Infrastructure
2. Cloud Resources
3. Defining Attributes
4. Deployment Models
5. Service Models

Question 3

What are the benefits of cloud computing?

Answer 3

Improve match between elastic demand and resources. Hence reducing cost and maximizing profits.

Question 4

What are the 3 Key Business Drivers?

Answer 4

1. Capacity Planning
2. Cost Reduction
3. Organization Agility

Question 5

What is capacity planning?

Answer 5

process of predicting and fulfilling future demands of a business resources, products and services.

Question 6

What are 3 strategies to capacity planning?

Answer 6

1. Lead Strategy: add capacity in anticipation
2. Lag Strategy: add capacity when resources hits full capacity
3. Match Strategy: add capacity in small increments as demand increases

Question 7

What is the Lead Strategy in Capacity Planning?

Answer 7

Adding capacity in anticipation

Question 8

What is the Lag Strategy in Capacity Planning

Answer 8

Adding capacity when resources hits full capacity

Question 9

What is the Match Strategy in Capacity Planning

Answer 9

Adding capacity in small increments as demand increases

Question 10

How does cloud make capacity planning obsolete?

Answer 10

Through on-demand self-service with rapid elastic resources. By providing measured service.

*** don’t make sense…

Question 11

What are 2 ways of Resource Provisioning in Capacity Planning?

Answer 11

1. Provisioning for Peak Load

2. Under-provisioning

Question 12

What is provisioning for peak load?

Answer 12

Setting the upper limit of resources to match peak of demand.

Question 13

What are the trade-offs of “Provisioning for Peak Load”?

Answer 13

• wasted resources during non-peak periods

Question 14

What is under-provisioning?

Answer 14

A situation where the demand exceed the available resources.

Question 15

What is an outcome of under-provisioning?

Answer 15

Loss of customers from users not being served due to insufficient resources.

Question 16

Why is on-premise system cost inefficient?

Answer 16

• IT department is considered a cost-center

- there’s huge upfront cost and ongoing operational cost

Question 17

How does cloud computing reduces cost?

Answer 17

By matching resources to demand in an elastic manner; cloud computing avoids on-premise system’s huge upfront costs.

Question 18

What is organizational agility?

Answer 18

How quickly an organization respond to changes

Question 19

Why is cloud solutions more agile than on-premise system?

Answer 19

• There is no sunk cost which prevents purchase of new hardware
• there is no need for organization to manage or update huge amount of systems manually when there’s a new software update
• cloud providers enjoy economies of scale in upgrading

Question 20

What are 3 Technology Innovations prior to cloud computing?

Answer 20

1. Clustering
2. Grid Computing
3. Virtualization

Question 21

What is Horizontal Scaling?

Answer 21

Scaling out/in of same resource type. Example from having 1 virtual servers to many.

Question 22

What is Vertical Scaling?

Answer 22

Scaling up/down of resource capacity. example; from having 1 workstation with 1 CPU to 4 CPU

Question 23

What are some technical challenges of cloud computing?

Answer 23

1. Development
2. Evolving Tools
3. Expensive to move large data
4. Security
5. Quality of Service
6. Internet Dependence
7. Energy Used

Question 24

What are some NON-technical challenges of Cloud cOmputing?

Answer 24

1. Increased security vulnerabilities
2. Reduce Operational Governance Control
3. Multi-regional compliance and legal issues