220-1101 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company hosts its e-commerce platform on a public cloud. The cloud provider monitors the health of virtual server instances and automatically redirects incoming requests away from any instance that fails to respond. This ensures that the platform remains operational even if individual VMs crash. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario BEST illustrate?

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

Accepted Answer

Fault tolerance. This scenario best illustrates fault tolerance because the cloud provider automatically detects a failed virtual server instance and redirects incoming requests away from it, ensuring the platform continues to operate without interruption. Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to continue functioning even when one or more of its components fail, which is exactly what the automatic redirection of traffic from a crashed VM achieves.

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High availability

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Elasticity

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Resource pooling

Question 2

A company wants to deploy a custom web application in the cloud. They need full control over the operating system and software stack, including the ability to install and configure the web server, database, and security patches. They do not want to manage the underlying physical hardware or hypervisor. Which cloud service model best meets their requirements?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, giving the customer full control over the operating system, middleware, and applications while the cloud provider manages the underlying physical hardware and hypervisor. This matches the requirement for full OS and software stack control without managing physical infrastructure.

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 3

A company develops a web application that relies on a custom library available only for a specific Linux distribution. They want to deploy the application in the cloud with minimal administrative overhead, but they need full control over the software stack, including the ability to install the custom library and configure the web server. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS provides virtualized computing resources (e.g., virtual machines) over the internet, giving the company full control over the operating system, software stack, and configuration. This allows them to install the custom library specific to a Linux distribution and configure the web server as needed, while the cloud provider handles the underlying physical infrastructure, minimizing administrative overhead. SaaS, PaaS, and FaaS abstract away the underlying OS and runtime, preventing the installation of distribution-specific libraries or custom server configuration.

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Function as a Service (FaaS)

Question 4

A development team wants to deploy a custom web application. They want to focus solely on writing and updating the application code without managing the underlying operating system, runtime, web server, or middleware. The team also wants the cloud provider to automatically handle patching of the OS and platform components. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a managed platform that includes the operating system, runtime, web server, and middleware, allowing developers to focus solely on writing and updating application code. The cloud provider automatically handles patching of the OS and underlying platform components, which directly matches the team's requirement to avoid managing infrastructure.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 5

An online retailer's website experiences periodic spikes in traffic during flash sales. The cloud platform automatically spins up additional virtual server instances to handle the increased load and then terminates them when the traffic subsides. This capability is an example of which characteristic of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity refers to the ability of a cloud system to automatically scale resources up or down based on demand. In this scenario, the platform spins up additional virtual server instances during flash sales and terminates them when traffic subsides, which is the defining behavior of elasticity. This contrasts with high availability, which focuses on uptime, not dynamic scaling.

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High availability

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Fault tolerance

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Measured service

Question 6

A company wants to deploy a custom web application that includes a custom database and a web server with specific modules. The development team needs full control over the operating system, including the ability to apply security patches and install third-party software. The company does not want to manage the physical servers, hypervisors, or network infrastructure. The cloud provider will be responsible for the underlying hardware and virtualization layer. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, giving the customer full control over the operating system, including the ability to apply security patches and install third-party software. The cloud provider manages the physical servers, hypervisors, and network infrastructure, while the customer retains administrative access to the OS, which is essential for deploying a custom web application with a custom database and specific modules.

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 7

A company is developing a custom application that requires a specific Linux kernel version and full root access to install and configure third-party security modules. The company wants to minimize the management of physical infrastructure but needs complete control over the operating system environment, including the ability to modify kernel parameters. The cloud provider will be responsible for all underlying hardware and the hypervisor. Which cloud service model should the company choose?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, granting the customer full administrative control over the operating system, including the ability to install custom kernels, modify kernel parameters, and install third-party security modules. The cloud provider manages the physical hardware and hypervisor, while the customer retains complete control of the guest OS, meeting the requirement for root access and kernel customization without managing physical infrastructure.

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Question 8

A company hosts a critical web application on a public cloud provider. The architecture uses virtual server instances in two geographically separate data centers (regions). A global load balancer monitors the health of each region and distributes incoming user traffic. If an entire region becomes unavailable due to a natural disaster, the load balancer automatically redirects all traffic to the remaining healthy region. This design is intended to meet a specific business requirement. Which cloud characteristic does this architecture BEST demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

High availability. This architecture demonstrates high availability because it uses redundant virtual server instances across two geographically separate regions with a global load balancer that performs automatic failover. When an entire region becomes unavailable due to a disaster, the load balancer detects the health check failure (e.g., HTTP 503 or TCP timeout) and redirects all traffic to the remaining healthy region, ensuring the application remains accessible. This design minimizes downtime and meets the business requirement for continuous operation despite regional outages.

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Elasticity

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Resource pooling

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Measured service

Question 9

A cloud provider hosts virtual servers for multiple clients on the same physical hardware. Each client's data and applications are logically isolated from others, and the clients have no knowledge of where their resources are physically located. This is an example of which essential characteristic of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

Resource pooling. Resource pooling is the correct answer because the scenario describes a cloud provider using virtualization to aggregate physical hardware resources (compute, storage, network) and dynamically assign them to multiple clients. Each client's data and applications are logically isolated, and the clients have no awareness or control over the exact physical location of their resources, which is the defining characteristic of resource pooling as per NIST SP 800-145.

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

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On-demand self-service

Question 10

A financial services company needs to migrate its customer transaction processing system to the cloud. Regulatory requirements mandate that all customer data must reside on servers physically located within the country’s borders and that the hardware must be dedicated solely to the company (no multi-tenancy at the hardware level). The company wants to retain the ability to scale resources on demand and manage the operating system and applications. Which cloud deployment model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Private cloud. A private cloud provides dedicated physical resources that are not shared with other organizations, offering the required isolation and control. It can be hosted on-premises or by a third-party provider with exclusive hardware. A public cloud would involve shared hardware, violating the requirement. A hybrid cloud combines public and private but does not guarantee full isolation. A community cloud is shared among several organizations with common concerns, but still not dedicated to one company.

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Public cloud

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Hybrid cloud

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Community cloud

Question 11

A global e-commerce company is designing a cloud architecture for its customer-facing website. The website experiences unpredictable traffic spikes during promotions. The company requires that during a regional cloud provider outage, all traffic is automatically redirected to a fully operational region with no manual intervention. Additionally, the company must ensure that all virtual machines across regions use identical configurations and a single management interface. Which cloud characteristic does the primary requirement address?

Accepted Answer

High availability. The primary requirement—automatic traffic redirection to a fully operational region during a regional outage with no manual intervention—directly defines high availability. High availability ensures that a system remains accessible by eliminating single points of failure through redundancy and automated failover mechanisms, such as DNS-based routing (e.g., using health checks and failover policies) or global load balancers that detect region failures and reroute traffic seamlessly.

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Elasticity

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Resource pooling

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Measured service

Question 12

A company wants to move its on-premises email server to the cloud. The goal is to eliminate all management overhead related to the operating system, security patches, and the email application itself. The IT team needs the email service to be highly available and automatically scalable. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

B. Software as a Service (SaaS). Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers a fully managed email application over the internet, where the provider handles all underlying infrastructure, operating system, security patches, and application updates. This model eliminates all management overhead for the IT team while offering built-in high availability and automatic scalability, as seen with services like Microsoft 365 Exchange Online or Google Workspace.

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A. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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C. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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D. Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 13

A company hosts its e-commerce application on a public cloud provider. The architecture includes duplicate virtual servers in two separate geographic regions. A global load balancer monitors server health. If an entire region becomes unavailable due to a natural disaster, the load balancer automatically reroutes all traffic to the remaining region. The application continues to run without any manual intervention. This capability is BEST described by which cloud characteristic?

Accepted Answer

Fault tolerance. Fault tolerance. This scenario describes a system that continues operating without interruption when an entire region fails, automatically rerouting traffic via a global load balancer. Fault tolerance specifically refers to a system's ability to continue functioning, without any downtime or manual intervention, even when a component or entire infrastructure fails. High availability (A) aims to minimize downtime but typically allows for brief interruptions or manual failover, whereas this design ensures zero-touch, continuous operation.

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High availability

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Scalability

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Elasticity

Question 14

A small business wants to move its company website to the cloud. The goal is to eliminate all management tasks related to the operating system and the web server software. The business wants to simply upload its website content and have the cloud provider handle all patching, security, and availability. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the correct model because it provides a managed platform where the cloud provider handles the operating system, web server software, patching, security, and availability. The business only needs to upload its website content (e.g., HTML, PHP files) and the provider manages the underlying runtime environment, including the web server (like Apache or Nginx) and OS updates. This eliminates all management tasks related to the OS and web server software, directly matching the requirement.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 15

A company hosts its e-commerce application on a public cloud provider. The architecture includes identical virtual server instances in two geographically separate data centers. A global load balancer monitors the health of each data center. If an entire data center becomes unavailable due to a natural disaster, the load balancer automatically redirects all traffic to the remaining healthy data center. The application continues to run without any manual intervention. This capability is BEST described by which cloud characteristic?

Accepted Answer

High availability. High availability (HA) is the correct answer because the architecture uses redundant virtual server instances across two geographically separate data centers with a global load balancer that automatically redirects traffic when an entire data center fails. This design ensures the application remains accessible without manual intervention, which is the defining characteristic of high availability — minimizing downtime through redundancy and automated failover.

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

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Resource pooling