MS-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

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. Elasticity refers to the ability of cloud resources to automatically scale out (increase capacity) during peak traffic and scale in (decrease capacity) during low usage, matching demand in real time. Measured service means that cloud resource usage is metered, and customers are billed only for the resources they actually consume, typically on a pay-per-use basis. These two characteristics directly address the company's requirements for automatic scaling and consumption-based billing.

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High availability and Disaster recovery

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Agility and Resource pooling

Question 2

Which cloud computing characteristic allows users to provision resources such as virtual machines and storage without requiring human interaction with the service provider?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. On-demand self-service is one of the five essential characteristics of cloud computing defined by NIST. It enables users to automatically provision computing resources as needed through a web portal or API, without requiring manual intervention from the service provider.

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

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Rapid elasticity

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 cloud resources and notices that their monthly bill is based on the exact amount of storage and compute hours they consumed. They did not pay for any fixed, unused capacity. Which cloud characteristic does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. Measured service is the cloud characteristic that enables usage-based billing, where customers pay only for the resources they actually consume (e.g., storage GB-hours, compute vCPU-hours) without any upfront or fixed costs for idle capacity. This is implemented through metering capabilities at the hypervisor or resource provider level, which track consumption in granular units and feed into billing systems. The scenario explicitly describes paying for exact consumption, which aligns directly with the pay-per-use model of measured service.

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Rapid elasticity

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Resource pooling

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On-demand self-service

Question 5

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 6

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 7

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 8

A company's e-commerce website experiences a sudden surge in traffic during a promotional event. The cloud infrastructure automatically adds additional virtual servers to handle the load and removes them when traffic subsides, without any manual intervention from the IT team. Which cloud computing characteristic does this demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. The scenario describes the cloud infrastructure automatically scaling virtual servers up and down in response to traffic changes, which is the defining characteristic of rapid elasticity. This capability allows resources to be provisioned and released elastically, often automatically, to match demand at any given time, as defined by NIST SP 800-145.

Answer

On-demand self-service

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Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Question 9

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.

Answer

On-demand self-service

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

Question 10

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 11

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 12

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 13

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 14

A company uses a cloud provider and is billed monthly based only on the exact amount of storage used and the number of compute hours consumed. They can increase or decrease usage at any time without upfront commitments. Which cloud computing characteristic does this billing model primarily demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. The billing model charges only for actual storage used and compute hours consumed, with no upfront commitments and the ability to adjust usage at any time. This directly aligns with the 'measured service' characteristic, where cloud resource usage is metered, monitored, and billed based on consumption. The key is that the provider tracks and reports usage transparently, enabling a pay-per-use model.

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On-demand self-service

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Rapid elasticity

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Resource pooling

Question 15

A company uses a cloud provider that hosts multiple customers on the same physical servers. Each customer's data and applications are isolated, but customers have no knowledge or control over the exact physical location of their resources. Which cloud characteristic does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Resource pooling. Resource pooling is the correct answer because the scenario describes a multi-tenant model where the cloud provider's physical and virtual resources are pooled to serve multiple customers, with isolation between tenants. Customers have no knowledge or control over the exact physical location of their resources, which is a defining characteristic of resource pooling as defined by NIST SP 800-145.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

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On-demand self-service

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Measured service