220-1101 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Practice Test 10 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company hosts a critical database on a virtual machine (VM) in a public cloud IaaS environment. The database requires high IOPS and low latency. The data must persist even if the VM is stopped or terminated. Additionally, the administrator needs to take frequent snapshots for backup. Which of the following storage types should be used for the database VM?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Block storage. Block storage (e.g., AWS EBS, Azure Managed Disks) provides raw, low-latency volumes that can be attached to a VM, supporting high IOPS for database workloads. Data persists independently of the VM lifecycle—even if the VM is stopped or terminated—and snapshots can be taken for backup. This makes block storage the correct choice for a critical database requiring persistence and frequent snapshots.

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Object storage

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File storage

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Ephemeral storage

Question 2

A company runs a web application on a virtual machine (VM) in a public cloud IaaS environment. The application experiences unpredictable traffic spikes throughout the day, sometimes lasting 30 minutes. The company wants to ensure consistent performance during spikes while minimizing costs. The current single VM (4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM) is sufficient for normal load but becomes slow during spikes. Which cloud characteristic should the administrator implement to address this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the correct answer because it allows the cloud infrastructure to automatically scale resources up during traffic spikes and scale down when demand decreases, ensuring consistent performance while minimizing costs. In an IaaS environment, this is typically achieved through auto-scaling groups that add or remove VM instances based on metrics like CPU utilization or request count, matching the unpredictable, short-duration spikes described.

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High availability

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Load balancing

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Fault tolerance

Question 3

A company is migrating its large collection of user-uploaded photos and videos to a cloud service. The data is unstructured, accessed infrequently, and must be available via HTTP/HTTPS URLs. The IT administrator wants the most cost-effective storage solution that scales automatically without provisioning capacity in advance. Which cloud storage type should the administrator choose?

Accepted Answer

Object storage. Object storage is the correct choice because it is designed for unstructured data like photos and videos, accessed infrequently, and provides HTTP/HTTPS access via RESTful APIs. It scales automatically without requiring capacity provisioning, and its pay-as-you-go model makes it the most cost-effective for this use case.

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Block storage

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File storage

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Hot storage tier

Question 4

A graphic design company needs to render a complex 3D animation that will take approximately 4 hours to complete. The rendering software requires a powerful CPU and a large amount of RAM. The company's on-premises workstations are not powerful enough, and they do not want to purchase new hardware. Which cloud computing characteristic would BEST allow them to complete this task cost-effectively?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity allows the company to provision cloud-based virtual machines with the required CPU and RAM for the duration of the rendering task (4 hours) and then de-provision them immediately after, paying only for the compute time used. This avoids the capital expenditure of purchasing new hardware and is cost-effective because resources scale up on demand and scale down when no longer needed.

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Metered service / measured service

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Resource pooling

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High availability

Question 5

A company runs a web application on a virtual machine in a public cloud. The application experiences predictable spikes in traffic every day between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM. The company wants to ensure consistent performance during these spikes without permanently upgrading the VM's resources. Which of the following cloud characteristics should the administrator configure?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the correct cloud characteristic because it allows the virtual machine's resources (e.g., CPU, RAM) to automatically scale up during the predictable 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM traffic spike and scale back down afterward, ensuring consistent performance without permanently upgrading the VM. This is a core feature of cloud computing defined by NIST SP 800-145, enabling dynamic provisioning and de-provisioning of resources to match demand.

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

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On-demand self-service

Question 6

A company runs a critical web application on a virtual machine in a public cloud IaaS environment. The application experiences predictable spikes in traffic every weekday from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. During the spike, the single VM (4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM) becomes slow. The company wants to ensure consistent performance during the spike without permanently increasing the VM's resources. Which of the following cloud characteristics should the administrator configure to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud characteristic that allows resources to automatically scale up during predictable traffic spikes and scale down afterward, ensuring consistent performance without permanently increasing VM resources. In this scenario, the administrator can configure auto-scaling rules to add additional VM instances or CPU/RAM during the 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM window, then remove them when demand subsides.

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Scalability

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High availability

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Fault tolerance

Question 7

A small business wants to deploy a customer relationship management (CRM) application for its sales team. The company wants to avoid managing servers, operating systems, or application patches. The sales team needs to access the CRM through a web browser from any device. The company prefers a monthly subscription model based on the number of users. Which cloud service model BEST fits these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS). The company wants to avoid managing servers, operating systems, or application patches, and needs browser-based access with a monthly subscription per user. Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers a fully managed application over the internet, where the provider handles all infrastructure, platform, and software maintenance, exactly matching these requirements.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 8

A small business wants to migrate its internal applications to the cloud to reduce hardware maintenance costs. They wish to retain control over the application code and configuration but do not want to manage the underlying operating system or runtime environment. Which cloud service model BEST meets their needs?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a managed platform where the customer controls the application code and configuration, while the cloud provider handles the underlying OS and runtime environment. This aligns with the requirement to reduce hardware maintenance costs without managing the OS or runtime.

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 9

A company runs critical virtual machines on a single physical server. The IT manager wants to ensure that if the physical server fails, the virtual machines continue to run automatically on another server with minimal downtime. Which feature should be configured on the virtualization platform?

Accepted Answer

High availability. High Availability (HA) is the correct feature because it automatically restarts virtual machines on a surviving host within a cluster when a physical server fails. HA uses heartbeat monitoring between hosts and, upon detecting a loss of heartbeat, triggers the VMs to be powered on elsewhere, achieving minimal downtime without manual intervention.

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Resource pooling

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Virtual desktop infrastructure

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Virtual machine snapshots

Question 10

A technician wants to set up a virtualization lab on a laptop running Windows 10 to test different operating systems. The laptop has 16GB of RAM. Which type of hypervisor is MOST appropriate for this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Type 2 (hosted) hypervisor. A Type 2 (hosted) hypervisor runs as a software layer on top of an existing operating system (Windows 10 in this case). It is the most appropriate choice for a laptop lab because it allows the technician to use the host OS for daily tasks while running virtual machines for testing different operating systems. Type 2 hypervisors like VMware Workstation or VirtualBox are designed for client hardware and do not require dedicated server-class resources.

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Type 1 (bare-metal) hypervisor

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Container-based virtualization

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Cloud-based virtualization service

Question 11

A company plans to migrate a customer-facing web application to the cloud. The application must automatically handle sudden traffic spikes by adding virtual servers without any manual intervention. Which cloud computing characteristic is MOST essential for this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables automatic scaling of resources up or down in response to demand, often without manual intervention. For a web application that must handle sudden traffic spikes by adding virtual servers automatically, rapid elasticity is essential because it allows the cloud infrastructure to provision and de-provision compute resources dynamically, typically using auto-scaling groups or similar mechanisms.

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Resource pooling

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Measured service

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On-demand self-service

Question 12

A company wants to move its email system to the cloud. The IT team wants to avoid managing physical servers and applying software updates, but they need full control over email policies, user accounts, and security settings. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS is the correct choice because it delivers the email application as a fully managed service, eliminating the need for the IT team to manage physical servers or apply software updates. At the same time, SaaS solutions like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace provide granular administrative controls for email policies, user accounts, and security settings through web-based portals, meeting the requirement for full control without infrastructure management.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 13

A company runs an online retail platform that experiences unpredictable traffic surges during holiday sales events. The cloud architecture must automatically scale resources up within minutes to handle the load and then scale down when traffic subsides to avoid unnecessary costs. Which characteristic of cloud computing is being utilized?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables resources to automatically scale up or down in response to demand. In this scenario, the platform needs to handle unpredictable traffic surges within minutes and then scale down to avoid costs, which directly matches the definition of rapid elasticity. This is distinct from on-demand self-service, which focuses on provisioning resources without human interaction, not on automatic scaling.

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On-demand self-service

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Broad network access

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Measured service

Question 14

A company implements a private cloud where multiple departments share the same physical hardware. The cloud platform ensures that each department's virtual machines are isolated from each other and that resources are dynamically allocated based on demand. Which cloud characteristic BEST describes this arrangement?

Accepted Answer

Resource pooling. Resource pooling is the correct answer because the scenario describes multiple departments sharing the same physical hardware while their virtual machines are isolated from each other. This is the defining characteristic of resource pooling in cloud computing, where computing resources (compute, storage, network) are aggregated to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to demand. The isolation between departments is achieved through hypervisor-level virtualization (e.g., VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V) which enforces strict separation of virtual machines on shared hardware.

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

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On-demand self-service

Question 15

A multinational company is migrating its customer data to a cloud provider. Legal requirements mandate that all customer data must be stored on servers physically located within the country of origin. Which cloud characteristic must the company verify before selecting a provider?

Accepted Answer

Regional availability. The company must ensure the cloud provider offers regional availability, meaning the provider has data centers physically located within the specific country required by law. This characteristic allows customers to select the geographic region where their data will be stored, directly addressing the legal mandate for data residency. Without regional availability, the provider might store data in any global location, violating compliance requirements.

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Elasticity

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High availability

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Shared responsibility model