Week 1 - Intro to Cloud Computing

Question 1

Which of the following is not the business driver of Cloud Computing?

A. Ease of use.
B. Capacity planning.
C. Cost reduction.
D. Organizational agility.

Answer 1

A - Ease of Use

Question 2

What are the differences between Clustering and Grid Computing?

A. Both nodes in Clustering and Grid Computing should have same type of hardware
and operating system (homogeneous).

B. Cluster nodes are often located close to each other, while nodes in Grid may be
located at a huge distance from each other.

C. Cluster nodes are usually internally connected via a high-speed network (e.g. fiber
cables, routers, and switches), while Grid nodes are connected through a relatively
low-speed network (e.g. Internet).

D. Both B and C.

Answer 2

D - Both B and C

Note: A is incorrect (In Clustering, nodes typically have
the same type of hardware and operating system (homogeneous), although
heterogeneous clusters also exist. In Grid Computing, nodes are usually
heterogeneous, with different types of hardware and operating systems, but
homogeneous grids can also be found in specific scenarios.)

Question 3

Which of the following are the pre-existing technologies that heavily impacted on Cloud
Computing?

A. Clustering, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence.

B. Database, Grid Computing, Docker.

C. Clustering, Grid Computing, Virtualization.

D. None of the above.

Answer 3

C - Clustering, Grid Computing, Virtualization.

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT regarded as an IT resource in Cloud Computing?

A. Virtual Machines on physical servers.

B. Storage services (e.g. Dropbox/OneDrive/iCloud).

C. Software program.

D. Portable USB Flash Drives.

Answer 4

D - Portable USB Flash Drives. (They are hardware, but not leased to cloud users.)

Question 5

Which of the following statement is NOT correct?

A. Horizontal scaling is less expensive compared to vertical scaling in the cloud context.

B. Horizontal scaling normally does not need to turn off the machines or cluster while
vertical scaling needs to shut down the machine, plug in more hardware and reboot.

C. Upgrading your RAM on your desktop is a typical horizontal scaling solution.
(Adding more RAM in your desktop is a vertical scaling solution)

D. Vertical scaling often has a hardware limitation.

Answer 5

D - Vertical scaling often has a hardware limitation.
(Horizontal Scaling (Scaling Out): This involves adding more instances or machines to a
system. For example, instead of having a single powerful server, you might have
multiple smaller servers working together.
Vertical Scaling (Scaling Up): This involves adding more resources (CPU, RAM, etc.) to
an existing machine. For example, upgrading the RAM or CPU of a single server to
handle more load.

Question 6

What are the cloud delivery models for Virtual Machine and Google App Engine, respectively?

A. SaaS and PaaS.

B. IaaS and PaaS.

C. IaaS and SaaS.

D. None of the above

Answer 6

B. IaaS and PaaS.

Virtual machine (VM) is typically associated with IaaS because it provides virtualized
computing resources. VM users have control over the operating system, applications, and
runtime environment.
Google App Engine (GAE) is a PaaS offering. It provides a managed platform for
developing and hosting web applications at scale. GAE users manage their applications,
while Google manages the infrastructure, runtime, and scalability.)

Question 7

What computing resources do cloud users need to manage in Software-as-a-service?

A. Networking and storage.

B. Operation system.

C. Application and data. (

D. None of the above.

Answer 7

D. None of the above.

(A. Incorrect: Networking and storage are maintained by IaaS
users)

(B. Incorrect: OS is maintained by IaaS users)

(C. Incorrect: Application and data are maintained by PaaS users)

Question 8

What computing resources do cloud users need to manage in Platform-as-a-service?

A. Networking and storage.

B. Operation system.

C. Application and data.

D. None of the above.

Answer 8

C - Application and data.

(A. Incorrect: Networking and storage are maintained by IaaS
users)

(B. Incorrect: OS is maintained by IaaS users)

Question 9

What is a public cloud?

A. A publicly accessible and metered cloud environment owned by a third-party
cloud provider.

B. A computing service that can only be accessed from a publicly shared computer.

C. A publicly accessible computing environment free of charge.

D. The cloud infrastructure that is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization
comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units).

Answer 9

A - A publicly accessible and metered cloud environment owned by a third-party
cloud provider.

Question 10

Which of the following software that lets you run multiple virtual machines on one
physical server machine?

A. Host operation system.

B. Guest operating system.

C. Virtual machine management or hypervisor.

D. Virtual machine management or hypervisor.

Answer 10

C - Virtual machine management or hypervisor.

Question 11

Which description of Multitenancy is correct?

A. Multitenancy is used for cloud service implementations and for front-ends used to
remotely manage cloud-based IT resources.

B. The multitenant application enables multiple users (tenants) to access the same
application logic simultaneously.

C. Multitenant applications ensure that tenants have access to data and configuration
information that are not their own.

D. All of the above.

Answer 11

B. The multitenant application enables multiple users (tenants) to access the same
application logic simultaneously.

(Multitenancy refers to a software architecture where a single instance of an application
serves multiple customers or tenants. Each tenant’s data is isolated and remains invisible
to other tenants. This architecture is commonly used in cloud services to optimize
resource usage and ensure scalability.)

Question 12

What is the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) definition of Cloud
Computing?

Answer 12

Cloud Computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a
shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and
services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service
provider interaction

Question 13

Give one example of virtualization application

Answer 13

Consider a company that needs servers for three functions:
* Store business email securely
* Run a customer-facing application.
* Run internal business applications

With virtualization, the company creates three digital servers, or virtual
machines, on a single physical server. It specifies the operating system requirements for the virtual
machines and can use them like the physical servers. However, the company now has less
hardware and fewer related expenses

Question 14

Define cloud and IT resource and provide some illustrative examples.

Answer 14

Cloud is a distinct IT environment that is designed for the purpose of remotely provisioning
scalable and measured IT resources. VMs on Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Oracle are all
well-developed business cloud products.

IT resource is a physical or virtual IT-related artifact that can be either software-based or
hardware-based. E.g., physical server, virtual server, storage devices, etc

Question 15

Explain what scaling is and differentiate between Horizontal Scaling and Vertical Scaling.
Support your answer with examples

Answer 15

Scaling: the ability of the IT resource to handle increased or decreased usage demands.

Horizontal scaling: allocating or releasing of IT resources (same type)

Vertical scaling: higher or lower capacity of the current IT resources (less common due to
downtime)

Horizonal is less expensive, IT resources are instantly available compared to usually available. Resource replication and automated scaling. Additional IT resources are needed and it is not limited by hardware capacity.

Question 16

Identify the six essential characteristics of Cloud Computing (OUMMER)

Answer 16

On Demand Usage
Ubiquitous access
Multitenancy
Measured Usage
Elasticity
Resiliency

Question 17

Explain On Demand Usage

Answer 17

• Cloud consumer has freedom to self-provision cloud’s IT resources
• Once configured, the usage can be automated without further
  involvement
• also known as “on-demand self-service usage”
• enables the service-based and usage-driven features found in
  mainstream clouds.

Question 18

Explain the Ubiquitous access Characteristic

Answer 18

• Widely accessible
• Normally, accessed via Internet (requires support for a range of devices,
  transport protocols, interfaces, and security technologies)

Question 19

Explain the Multitenancy Characteristic

Answer 19

• a program instance can serve different consumers (e.g. database)
• good for dynamically assigned and reassigned resources (by
  virtualization technologies)

Question 20

Explain the Elasticity Characteristic

Answer 20

• ability to automatically to transparently scale IT resources
• is often considered a core justification for the adoption of cloud
  computing
• closely associates with the financial benefits.

Question 21

Explain the Measured Usage Characteristic

Answer 21

• ability to keep track of the usage of IT (by cloud consumers)
• is closely related to the on-demand characteristic
• billing purpose and usage report (for both cloud providers and
  consumers)

Question 22

Explain the Resiliency Characteristic

Answer 22

• form of failover that distributes redundant implementations
  of IT resources across physical locations.
• if one becomes deficient, processing is automatically handed
  over to another redundant implementation.
• increases reliability

Question 23

What are the 4 deployment models in cloud computing?

Answer 23

Private Cloud
Public Cloud
Community Cloud
Hybrid Cloud

Question 24

Explain the Private Cloud

Answer 24

The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single
organization comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units). It may be owned,
managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them, and
it may exist on or off-premises.

Question 25

Explain the Public Cloud

Answer 25

The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general public. It may be owned, managed, and operated by a business, academic, or government organization, or some combination of them. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider.

Question 26

Explain the Community Cloud

Answer 26

The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a specific community of consumers from organizations that have shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations). It may be owned, managed, and operated by one or more of the organizations in the community, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off-premises.

Question 27

Explain the Hybrid Cloud

Answer 27

The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds).

Question 28

What are the cloud delivery models? Give an example of each

Answer 28

SaaS - Software as a Service e.g. Instagram PaaS - Platform as a Service e.g. Google App Engine IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service e.g. Virtual machines

Question 29

Describe SaaS:

Answer 29

- Usage and usage-related config - access to front end - uses and configures cloud services - implements, manages and maintains cloud service, monitors usage by cloud consumers. You Manage: - nothing Provider Manages: - Apps - Data - Runtime - Middleware - OS - Servers - Networking - Virtualization - Storage

Question 30

Describe PaaS

Answer 30

- Limited administrative - moderate level of admin control over IT resources relevant to cloud consumers usage of platform - develops, tests deploys and manages cloud services and cloud based solutions - preconfigures platform and provisions underlying infrastructure, middleware and other needed IT resources, as necessary, monitors usage by consumers You Manage: - Apps - Data Service Provider Manages: - Runtime - Middleware - OS - Virtualization - Servers - Storage - Networking

Question 31

Describe IaaS

Answer 31

- Full administrative - full access to virtualized infrastructure-related IT resources and possibly to underlying physical IT resources - setup and configures bare infrastructure, and installs, monitors, manages any needed software - provisions and manages the physical processing storage, networking and hosting required - monitors usage by cloud consumers. You manage: - Apps - Data - Runtime - Middleware - OS Provider Manages: - Virtualization - storage - servers - networking

Question 32

What do Cloud Enabling Technologies Include? (BVDWM)

Answer 32

1) Broadband Networks and Internet Architecture 2) Virtualization Technology 3) Data Centre Technology 4) Web Technology 5) Multitenant Technology

Question 33

Please summarize the key points of Virtualization Technology for servers

Answer 33

Server virtualization - process of abstracting IT hardware into virtual servers using virtualization software. - virtualization provides hardware independence, server consolidation, and resource replication - further supports resource pooling and elastic scalability. - Virt servers are either OS based or hardware-based virtualization.

Question 34

What is Google Cloud Compute Engine? What are the benefits of Google Cloud Compute Engine?

Answer 34

GCCE refers to customizable virtual machines in Google Cloud. 3 Diff types general-purpose: suited for general servers, websites and databases. compute-optimized: computing intense applications, e.g., high-performance computing, gaming, and electronic design automation. memory-optimized: memory-intensive workloads, such as in-memory databases, in-memory analytics, and machine learning

Question 35

What is clustering?

Answer 35

A cluster is a group of independent IT resources that are interconnected and work as a single system. - Cluster nodes have reasonably identical hardware and OS - provide similar performance levels when one failed component is to be replaced by another. - synchronised through dedicated, high-speed communication links. * System failure rates are reduced while availability and reliability are increased, since redundancy and failover features are inherent to the cluster. * The basic concepts of built-in redundancy and failover are core to cloud platforms.

Question 36

What is Grid Computing?

Answer 36

GC provides a platform in which computing resources are organized into one or more logical pools, these pools are collectively coordinated to provide a high performance distributed grid.

Question 37

What is horizontal scaling?

Answer 37

Allocating or releasing of IT resources

Question 38

What is vertical scaling?

Answer 38

higher or lower capacity of the current IT resources (less common due to down time)

Question 39

How does GC differ from clustering?

Answer 39

- grid systems are much more loosely coupled and distributed. - grid computing systems can involve heterogeneous and geographically dispersed computing resources - grid computing systems are often connected through a relatively low-speed network (e.g. Internet)