MS-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Test 4 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which cloud characteristic allows an organization to increase or decrease computing resources quickly based on demand, without requiring manual intervention?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables automatic, on-demand scaling of computing resources (such as virtual machines, storage, or network bandwidth) in response to fluctuating workload demands, without requiring manual provisioning or de-provisioning. This is a core feature of cloud computing defined by NIST SP 800-145, allowing resources to scale out (increase) or scale in (decrease) dynamically, often using orchestration tools like Azure Autoscale or AWS Auto Scaling. The key distinction is that the scaling happens quickly and automatically, based on predefined rules or metrics like CPU utilization or request count.

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

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Broad network access

Question 2

A company wants to ensure that their cloud resources can automatically increase during peak traffic and decrease during low usage. They also want to be billed only for the resources they consume. Which two cloud characteristics are described? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Elasticity and Measured service. The question describes two cloud characteristics: automatic scaling in response to demand (elasticity) and pay-per-use billing (measured service). Both of these are part of option A. Option B focuses on availability and recovery, not scaling or billing. Option C includes scalability (which may be manual) and fault tolerance (redundancy), neither of which directly address automatic scaling or consumption-based billing. Option D includes agility (rapid provisioning) and resource pooling (shared infrastructure), which do not match the requirements. Therefore, only option A is correct.

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High availability and Disaster recovery

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Scalability and Fault tolerance

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Agility and Resource pooling

Question 3

A company uses a cloud service where they can rent virtual machines and storage. They have full control over the operating system and applications, while the provider manages the physical hardware. Which cloud service model is being used?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This scenario describes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) because the company rents virtual machines and storage, retains full control over the operating system and applications, while the cloud provider manages the underlying physical hardware. In IaaS, the provider abstracts the physical infrastructure (servers, networking, storage) and delivers it as on-demand virtualized resources, which aligns with the customer's responsibility for OS and app configuration.

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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On-premises deployment

Question 4

A company uses a cloud provider that offers compute power as a service. The provider manages the physical servers, storage, and networking, but the company has full control over the operating system, applications, and configurations. Which cloud service model is being used?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The scenario describes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where the cloud provider manages the underlying physical infrastructure (servers, storage, networking), but the customer retains full control over the operating system, applications, and configurations. This aligns with the IaaS model as defined by NIST SP 800-145, which provides virtualized computing resources over the internet.

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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 5

A company wants to use a cloud service where they can develop and run applications without managing the underlying infrastructure, including servers, operating systems, or storage. They only need to upload their code and the provider handles scaling and availability. Which cloud service model best describes this approach?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a managed hosting environment where developers can deploy applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. The provider automatically handles server provisioning, OS patching, storage management, and scaling based on demand. In this scenario, the company only needs to upload code, which is the defining characteristic of PaaS.

Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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On-premises deployment

Question 6

A marketing team needs to temporarily increase their cloud storage capacity from 5 TB to 10 TB for a product launch. They can perform this change themselves through a web portal without contacting the cloud provider. Which cloud characteristic does this scenario demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. This scenario demonstrates on-demand self-service because the marketing team can provision and manage their own cloud storage capacity increase from 5 TB to 10 TB through a web portal without any human interaction with the cloud provider. This is a core NIST-defined characteristic where users can unilaterally provision computing resources as needed automatically, requiring no service provider intervention.

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

Question 7

A cloud provider serves thousands of customers using the same physical hardware. Each customer's data and applications are isolated from one another through virtualization. The provider can dynamically allocate resources to customers based on demand. Which cloud characteristic does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Resource pooling. This scenario describes resource pooling, where the cloud provider's computing resources (e.g., storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth) are pooled to serve multiple customers using a multi-tenant model. Virtualization isolates each customer's data and applications, while physical and virtual resources are dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. This is a core characteristic of cloud computing as defined by NIST SP 800-145.

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On-demand self-service

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

Question 8

A company uses a cloud provider that bills them based on the exact amount of storage and compute hours they consume each month. They can increase or decrease their usage at any time without signing a long-term contract. Which cloud computing characteristic is most directly demonstrated by the billing model?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. The billing model described—paying for exactly the amount of storage and compute hours consumed, with no long-term contract—directly demonstrates the measured service characteristic. Measured service means that cloud resource usage is metered, monitored, and reported, allowing providers to charge customers based on actual consumption (pay-as-you-go). This is a core attribute of cloud computing as defined by NIST SP 800-145, where usage is tracked and billed transparently.

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Scalability

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Elasticity

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On-demand self-service

Question 9

A company uses a cloud service where administrators can add or remove virtual machine instances through a web portal without contacting the provider. The provider bills only for the exact resources consumed. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario best demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. On-demand self-service allows users to provision compute capabilities without requiring human interaction with the service provider. Measured service refers to metering resource usage; rapid elasticity is about scaling; resource pooling is about multi-tenancy. The combination of self-provisioning and usage-based billing points primarily to on-demand self-service.

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

Question 10

A cloud provider allows customers to provision virtual machines, storage, and other resources through a web portal without requiring human interaction with the provider's staff. Which cloud computing characteristic does this best illustrate?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. The scenario describes a user provisioning resources through a web portal without any human interaction from the provider. This directly matches the NIST SP 800-145 definition of on-demand self-service, where a consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider.

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

Question 11

A company uses a cloud provider that charges them only for the actual storage and compute resources they consume each month. They can start or stop machines at any time and are billed precisely for what they use. Which cloud computing characteristic does this billing model demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. The billing model described—paying only for actual storage and compute resources consumed, with the ability to start/stop machines at any time—directly demonstrates 'Measured service'. This characteristic, defined by NIST SP 800-145, means cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource usage by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, active user accounts). Usage is monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer.

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Rapid elasticity

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On-demand self-service

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Resource pooling

Question 12

An e-commerce website hosted on a cloud provider automatically adds more virtual machines to handle increased traffic during Black Friday and removes them after the event. Which cloud characteristic does this illustrate?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables resources to scale out (add VMs) automatically in response to demand spikes like Black Friday traffic, and scale in (remove VMs) when demand subsides. This is distinct from manual scaling because it happens automatically and dynamically, often using autoscaling policies tied to metrics such as CPU utilization or request count.

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On-demand self-service

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Resource pooling

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Measured service

Question 13

A company moves its on-premises servers to a cloud provider. The provider supplies the physical hardware, networking, and storage. The company installs and manages the operating system and applications on the virtual machines. Which cloud service model does this scenario represent?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This scenario describes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) because the cloud provider supplies the physical hardware, networking, and storage, while the customer retains full control over the operating system and applications. In IaaS, the provider manages the underlying infrastructure (e.g., hypervisor, physical servers, network switches), and the customer is responsible for the guest OS, middleware, and application stack. This aligns with the shared responsibility model where the customer handles OS patching, application configuration, and data management.

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Function as a Service (FaaS)

Question 14

A cloud user can access their files from a work desktop, a personal laptop at home, and a mobile phone while traveling. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario best illustrate?

Accepted Answer

Broad network access. Broad network access is the correct answer because it describes the ability to access cloud resources from diverse client platforms (work desktop, personal laptop, mobile phone) over the network using standard protocols such as HTTPS, SSH, or VPN. This characteristic ensures that services are available from any location with internet connectivity, not just from a single device or network.

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On-demand self-service

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Resource pooling

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Rapid elasticity

Question 15

A cloud provider bills a customer monthly based on the precise number of gigabytes of storage used and the number of virtual machine hours consumed. Which essential cloud computing characteristic does this billing model demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. The billing model charges based on exact gigabytes of storage used and virtual machine hours consumed, which directly aligns with the 'measured service' characteristic. This means the cloud provider meters resource usage (e.g., storage IOPS, compute hours) and bills only for what is consumed, enabling pay-as-you-go pricing. Measured service relies on telemetry and monitoring systems (e.g., Azure Monitor, AWS CloudWatch) to track usage and generate invoices.

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Resource pooling

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On-demand self-service

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Broad network access