- A
Public cloud
Why wrong: Public cloud infrastructure is owned and operated by a third-party provider like AWS and is shared among many customers. This agency's own facility does not qualify as public cloud.
- B
Hybrid cloud
Why wrong: Hybrid cloud combines on-premises or private cloud infrastructure with public cloud resources. This agency uses no public cloud services.
- C
Private cloud
Private cloud means the infrastructure is dedicated to a single organisation and is not shared with others. Operating all workloads on agency-owned hardware in an agency-managed facility is private cloud.
- D
Community cloud
Why wrong: Community cloud is infrastructure shared by several organisations with common concerns (e.g. security requirements, compliance). This agency's infrastructure is not shared.
CLF-C02 Cloud Concepts Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of cloud concepts. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A government agency runs all of its computing workloads on hardware located in its own secure facility. No resources are hosted with a third-party cloud provider. The agency manages all servers, networking equipment, and storage. Which cloud deployment model describes this architecture?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Private cloud
Option C is correct because a private cloud deployment model is defined by cloud resources being used exclusively by a single organization, typically hosted on-premises in the organization's own data center. In this scenario, the government agency owns and manages all hardware, networking, and storage within its own secure facility, with no third-party cloud provider involvement, which aligns precisely with the private cloud model.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Public cloud
Why it's wrong here
Public cloud infrastructure is owned and operated by a third-party provider like AWS and is shared among many customers. This agency's own facility does not qualify as public cloud.
- ✗
Hybrid cloud
Why it's wrong here
Hybrid cloud combines on-premises or private cloud infrastructure with public cloud resources. This agency uses no public cloud services.
- ✓
Private cloud
Why this is correct
Private cloud means the infrastructure is dedicated to a single organisation and is not shared with others. Operating all workloads on agency-owned hardware in an agency-managed facility is private cloud.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Community cloud
Why it's wrong here
Community cloud is infrastructure shared by several organisations with common concerns (e.g. security requirements, compliance). This agency's infrastructure is not shared.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'on-premises' with 'private cloud,' forgetting that a private cloud requires cloud characteristics like self-service, resource pooling, and rapid elasticity, not just isolated hardware; however, in this question, the agency's fully managed on-premises environment still qualifies as a private cloud because it meets the NIST definition of exclusive use by a single organization.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, a private cloud can be built using virtualization platforms like VMware vSphere or OpenStack, which abstract physical servers into a pool of compute, storage, and networking resources, enabling self-service and elasticity similar to public clouds. A key subtlety is that private clouds can also be hosted off-premises by a third party if dedicated infrastructure is used exclusively for one organization, but in this case, the on-premises hosting reinforces the private cloud classification. Real-world scenarios include government agencies with strict data sovereignty requirements, such as the U.S. Department of Defense using AWS GovCloud (a private cloud variant) or on-premises OpenStack deployments.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Cloud Concepts — This question tests Cloud Concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Private cloud — Option C is correct because a private cloud deployment model is defined by cloud resources being used exclusively by a single organization, typically hosted on-premises in the organization's own data center. In this scenario, the government agency owns and manages all hardware, networking, and storage within its own secure facility, with no third-party cloud provider involvement, which aligns precisely with the private cloud model.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.
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