Understand Cloud Concepts

Question 1

Describe the benefits and considerations of using cloud services

Answer 1

• cost-effective
• scalable
• elastic
• current
• reliable
• global
• secure

Question 2

Define Fault Tolerance

Answer 2

Fault tolerance - redundancy is often built into cloud services architecture so if one component fails, a backup component takes its place. This is referred to as fault tolerance and it ensures that your customers aren’t impacted when an unexpected accident occurs.

Question 3

What is Economies of scale

Answer 3

Economies of scale is the ability to do things more efficiently or at a lower-cost per unit when operating at a larger scale.

Question 4

What is CapEx

Answer 4

CapEx is the spending of money on physical infrastructure up front, and then deducting that expense from your tax bill over time. CapEx is an upfront cost, which has a value that reduces over time

Question 5

What is OpEx

Answer 5

OpEx is spending money on services or products now and being billed for them now. You can deduct this expense from your tax bill in the same year. There is no upfront cost, you pay for a service or product as you use it.

Question 6

How does the challenge Demand and Growth affect CapEx / OpEx

Answer 6

• Demand and growth can be unpredictable and can outpace expectation, which is a challenge for the CapEx model
• OpEx is particularly appealing if the demand fluctuates or is unknown because cloud computing is agile. This agility lets you manage your costs dynamically, and scale up or down as the market changes for your business.

Question 7

What is consumption based model

Answer 7

you manage your costs dynamically, and scale up or down as the market changes for your business.

Question 8

Describe Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

Answer 8

Infrastructure as a Service
○ IT infrastructure servers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, and operating systems
○ Instead of buying hardware, with IaaS, you rent it.
○ IaaS is commonly used in the following scenarios:
§ Migrating workloads
§ Test and development
§ Website hosting
§ Storage, backup, and recovery

Question 9

Describe Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

Answer 9

• PaaS provides an environment for building, testing, and deploying software applications
• The goal of PaaS is to help you create an application quickly without managing the underlying infrastructure

• PaaS is commonly used in the following scenarios:
○ Development framework
○ Analytics or business intelligence

Question 10

Describe Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Answer 10

SaaS is software that is centrally hosted and managed for the end customer

Question 11

Compare and contrast the three different service type (IaaS | PaaS | SaaS)

Answer 11

Upfront cost
○ No upfront cost

User ownership
○ IaaS: The user is responsible for the purchase, installation, configuration, and management of their own software operating systems, middleware, and applications

○ PaaS: The user is responsible for the development of their own applications.

○ SaaS: Users not responsible for any maintenance or management of that software.

Cloud provider ownership
○ IaaS: The cloud provider is responsible for ensuring that the underlying cloud infrastructure (such as virtual machines, storage, and networking) is available for the user.

○ PaaS: Cloud providers are typically responsible for everything apart from the application that a user wants to run.

○ SaaS: The cloud provider is responsible for the provision, management, and maintenance of the application software

Question 12

Describe Public cloud

Answer 12

This is the most common deployment model. In this case, you have no local hardware to manage or keep up-to-date – everything runs on your cloud provider’s hardware. In some cases, you can save additional costs by sharing computing resources with other cloud users.

Question 13

Describe Private cloud

Answer 13

In a private cloud, you create a cloud environment in your own datacenter and provide self-service access to compute resources to users in your organization. This offers a simulation of a public cloud to your users, but you remain completely responsible for the purchase and maintenance of the hardware and software services you provide

Question 14

Describe Hybrid cloud

Answer 14

A hybrid cloud combines public and private clouds, allowing you to run your applications in the most appropriate location.

Question 15

Compare and contrast the three different cloud models: Public

Answer 15

Public -
○ High scalability/agility
○ Pay-as-you-go pricing
○ Company not responsible for maintenance or updates of the hardware
○ Minimal technical knowledge to set up and use
○ May be specific security requirements that cannot be met by using public cloud
○ May be government policies, industry standards, or legal requirements which public clouds cannot meet
○ You don’t own the hardware or services and cannot manage them as they may wish
Unique business requirements, such as having to maintain a legacy application might be hard to meet

Question 16

Compare and contrast the three different cloud models: Private

Answer 16

Private
○ You have complete control over the resources and can ensure the configuration can support any scenario or legacy application
○ You have complete control (and responsibility) over security
○ Private clouds can meet strict security, compliance, or legal requirements in ways a public cloud might not be able to
○ You have upfront CapEx costs and must purchase the hardware for startup and maintenance
○ Owning the equipment limits the agility - to scale you must buy, install, and setup new hardware
○ Private clouds require IT skills and expertise that’s hard to come by

Question 17

Compare and contrast the three different cloud models: Hybrid

Answer 17

Hybrid
○ You can keep any systems running and accessible that use out-of-date hardware or an out-of-date operating system
○ You have flexibility with what you run locally versus in the cloud
○ You can take advantage of economies of scale from public cloud providers for services and resources where it’s cheaper, and then supplement with your own equipment when it’s not
○ You can use your own equipment to meet security, compliance, or legacy scenarios where you need to completely control the environment
○ It can be more expensive than selecting one deployment model since it involves some CapEx cost up front
○ It can be more complicated to set up and manage

Question 18

Define Scalability

Answer 18

Scalability - increase or decrease the resources and services used based on the demand or workload at any given time. Scalability refers to adding network bandwidth, memory, storage, or computer power to achieve better performance. Can be done manually or automatically based on specific triggers

Question 19

Define Elasticity

Answer 19

Elasticity is as a workload changes due to a spike or drop in demand, a cloud computing system can compensate by automatically adding or removing resources. For example: a website is featured in a news article, which leads to a spike in traffic. The cloud can automatically allocate more computing resources to handle the increased traffic. When the traffic begins to settle, the cloud notices and begins to remove the unused resources

Question 20

Define Agility

Answer 20

Agility is the ability to rapidly change an IT infrastructure in order to adapt to the evolving needs of the business

Question 21

Define Disaster Recovery

Answer 21

Disaster Recovery - In the event of hardware failure, procedures are in place to ensure services and data are restored. For example: if a disk goes out, the disk will be replaced

Question 22

Define High Availability

Answer 22

Systems that are durable and likely to operate continuously without failure for a long time; a system which aims to ensure an agreed upon level of operational performance, usually uptime, for a higher than normal period

Question 23

Define Vertical Scaling

Answer 23

Vertical Scaling also known as “scaling up,” is the process of adding resources to increase the power of an existing server. For example: adding faster CPU, additional memory, etc.

Question 24

Define Horizontal Scaling

Answer 24

Horizontal Scaling also known as “scaling out,” is the process of adding more servers that function together as one using. For example: instead of having one server processing incoming requests, you have two