220-1101 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Practice Question
A company operates a private cloud for its internal applications. To handle seasonal traffic spikes, the company wants to automatically offload extra workload to a public cloud provider when the private cloud's utilization reaches 80%. Which of the following cloud concepts BEST describes this setup?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the distinction between hybrid cloud and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), where candidates mistakenly think a VPC is a hybrid setup because it can connect to on-premises networks, but a VPC is solely a public cloud construct, not a combination of private and public clouds.
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
✓
Hybrid cloud
The setup combines a private cloud (on-premises) with a public cloud provider to handle traffic spikes, which is the defining characteristic of a hybrid cloud. The automatic offloading of workloads when utilization reaches 80% is a classic example of cloud bursting, a key use case for hybrid cloud architectures. This model allows the company to maintain sensitive workloads on-premises while leveraging public cloud elasticity for peak demand.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Community cloud
Why it's wrong here
A community cloud is a shared infrastructure that serves multiple organizations with the same compliance or operational requirements, such as government agencies or healthcare consortia. In this scenario, a single company's private cloud is being supplemented by public cloud resources for extra capacity, not by a shared multi-tenant community infrastructure, so it does not fit.
- ✓
Hybrid cloud
Why this is correct
A hybrid cloud architecture explicitly integrates a private cloud with one or more public cloud services, often using orchestration or VPN connections to enable workload mobility. The described capability of automatically offloading excess demand to a public cloud, known as cloud bursting, is a defining behavior of a hybrid cloud, because it requires both a private baseline and a public overflow target.
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Virtual Private Cloud
Why it's wrong here
A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a logically isolated, software-defined network segment within a public cloud provider's infrastructure, such as AWS VPC or Azure Virtual Network. It does not involve a customer's own private cloud at all; rather, it lets a customer carve out a private address space inside the public cloud, so it is a feature of a public cloud, not the combination of private and public environments.
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Software as a Service
Why it's wrong here
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a deployment model where applications are delivered over the internet as a managed service, such as email or CRM, without the customer managing the underlying infrastructure. The question describes a scalability architecture that combines private and public infrastructure, not a service model for delivering applications, so SaaS is irrelevant to the scenario.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1101 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 220-1101 exam.