Cloud Concepts (15-20%)

Question 1

What are the major services that Azure provides?

Answer 1

1. Storage - meaning servers such as windows, linux, hosting environments, etc., memory
2. Compute Power - like files and/or databases, CPU
3. Networking - in azure but also outside when connecting to your company network
4. Analytics - services for visualization and telemetry data

Question 2

What is scalability?

Answer 2

Increasing capability of a resource, or adding/removing resources

Question 3

What is vertical scaling?

Answer 3

Increasing the CPU, memory, storage of an individual resource / set of resources

Decreasing is scaling down

Question 4

What is horizontal scaling?

Answer 4

Increasing the number of resources rather than the power of one resource

Question 5

What is elasticity?

Answer 5

1. Scaling up/down resources on demand based on user activity/need
2. Also known as automatic scaling

Question 6

What does it mean to provision a server?

Answer 6

Setup a server to be used on a network

Question 7

What does agility mean for cloud computing?

Answer 7

1. The ability to allocate and deallocate resources in a very short time
2. Provision a server, request a resource in minutes versus days

Question 8

What is fault tolerance?

Answer 8

1. The ability to remain up and running during component and service failures
2. Cloud reallocates to different server given a local failure

Question 9

What is disaster recovery?

Answer 9

Two copies of the same app in two Azure regions

Replication allows the two version to stay the same over time

Question 10

What is cloud availability?

Answer 10

1. Uptime / Downtime
2. the agreed level of operational uptime for the system

Question 11

How does Azure benefit from economies of scale?

Answer 11

1. Able to offer many services for free
2. At a larger scale - more people leveraging more of their services - the cost to run many services if very low so they can offer services for free
3. Economies of Scale - The large operations get, the more effective they beomc eat managing shared operations

Question 12

What does Capital Expenditure mean for the Cloud?

Answer 12

• Buying your own infrastructure
• High cost at the start to purchase hardware but cost reduces over time (just paying for maintenance)

Question 13

What are the benefits of Capital Expenditure?

Answer 13

It’s your own infrastructure so you have control

Question 14

What are the cons of Capital Expenditure?

Answer 14

• Big initial investment
• Lots of maintenance required - support staff, hardwares failures, etc.
• Tax dedication over time with depreciation

Question 15

What does Operational Expenditure mean for the cloud?

Answer 15

Renting infrastructure

Question 16

What are the benefits of Operational Expenditure?

Answer 16

• No initial investments
• Pay for what you use
• Maintenance is done by the vendors
• Tax dedication in same year

Question 17

What are the benefits a Consumption based model?

Answer 17

You only pay for the resources that you use, and you stop paying when you longer use those resources

Question 18

In Azure where can you see your costs?

Answer 18

1. Cost Management and Billing Overview
2. Storage and Compute usage factor in to calculating cost

Question 19

What are the Cloud Service Model Layers of Azure?

Answer 19

1. Infrastructure as a Service
2. Platform as a Service
3. Software as a Service

Question 20

What sub-layers make up the Software layer of Azure?

Answer 20

1. The applications and the data itself

Question 21

What sub-layers make up the Platform layer of Azure?

Answer 21

1. Runtime - software designed to support the execution of programs.
2. Middleware - software that sits between the operating system and the actual applications.
3. Operating System - software that supports a computers basic functions (executing applications, performing tasks)

Question 22

What are the sub-layers that make up the Platform layer of Azure?

Answer 22

1. Servers
2. Networking
3. Storage

Question 23

What is the Infrastructure layer?

Answer 23

Hardware and virtualization

Question 24

What is the Platform layer?

Answer 24

• Software and configuration required to run the application

Question 25

What is the **Software** layer?

Answer 25

The application and its data

Question 26

What is **on-premise**?

Answer 26

You own all layers - Software, Platform, Infrastructure

Question 27

What is Infrastructure as a Service?

Answer 27

* Cloud provider will manage Infrastructure * You own Software and Platform (middleware)

Question 28

What is Platform as a Service?

Answer 28

* Cloud provider will manage infrastructure and platform * You own the Software * Usually used when you’re doing AI, Business Analytics, building your own software * Most common method

Question 29

What is SaaS?

Answer 29

* Cloud provider will manage everything * Ex. Outlook, Skype, Teams, etc.

Question 30

What are the main criteria for assessing different deployment models?

Answer 30

1. Cost 2. IT skills required 3. Control 4. Configuration flexibility 5. Maintenance

Question 31

What is Public Cloud?

Answer 31

1. All resources are hosted in a public cloud - shared with other customers 2. The cost is lower 3. Advantages - No CapEx cost, highly available and agile, pay are you go pricing, no hardware maintenance, no deep technical skills required 4. Disadvantages - Security & compliance is not specific to your business, you can’t make changes to hardware, can’t tailor hardware to business requirements

Question 32

What is Private Cloud?

Answer 32

1. Everything is hosted in a private datacenter 2. Cost is higher 3. Advantages - Can support any scenario, total control over security, Can meet any security and companies requirement 4. Disadvantage - High initial cost, limited agility, IT skills are mandatory

Question 33

What is hybrid Cloud model?

Answer 33

1. Hardware is noted both in private and public datacenter - separated by application 2. Advantages - great flexibility, run legacy apps in private cloud, utilize existing infrastructure, meet security requirements 3. Disadvantages - Can be more expensive, complicated to manage, IT skills are mandatory

Question 34

1. What is containerization (tier 2hypervisor) versus VM (tier 1 hypervisor)?

Answer 34

1. VM - Individual Virtual machines with *many applications per VM, their own Guest OS per virtual machine* 1. *Next layer - hypervisor* 2. *Next layer - Host OS* 3. *Next layer - The hardware is split for maximum efficiency* 2. Containerization - *Individual applications* configured within their own container 1. Next layer - docker engine - creates containers on one OS 2. Next layer - Host OS - the OS split for maximum efficiency and to make containers lightweight 3. No hypervisor, same OS for docker engine

Question 35

Containerization - *Individual applications* configured within their own container

Answer 35

1. Next layer - docker engine - creates containers on one OS 2. Next layer - Host OS - the OS split for maximum efficiency and to make containers lightweight 3. No hypervisor, same OS for docker engine