Cloud Digital Leader Why Cloud Technology Can Transform Business Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  Preemptible VMs

  Why it's wrong here

  Preemptible VMs are short-lived, lower-cost compute instances that Google Cloud can terminate at any time, typically after 24 hours or when capacity is needed. For a web application that must remain available to users, this unpredictable termination would cause downtime and data loss. These VMs are designed for fault-tolerant batch workloads, not for serving user traffic, making them unsuitable for this scenario.

• ✗

  Sustained use discounts

  Why it's wrong here

  Sustained use discounts are automatic discounts applied to instance usage that runs for more than 25% of a billing month, with savings increasing up to a maximum of 30%. They require no upfront commitment, but for a company running a web application continuously for a full year, the total savings are significantly less than committed use discounts, which can offer up to 70% off. Since the application will have predictable, steady usage, choosing a committed use discount yields greater cost efficiency.

• ✗

  Pay-as-you-go

  Why it's wrong here

  Pay-as-you-go is the default on-demand pricing model where you pay per instance-hour (or per-second for many resources) with no upfront cost and no commitment. While this offers maximum flexibility, it provides zero discount per hour, so a continuously running web application would incur the highest total cost over a year compared to commitment-based pricing. For a company that already knows the application will be running 24/7, paying without a discount is financially suboptimal.

• ✓

  Committed use discounts

  Why this is correct

  Committed use discounts (CUDs) allow you to commit to a specific level of vCPUs, memory, and other resources for a 1- or 3-year term, in exchange for a substantial discount, up to 70%. Because the web application is expected to run indefinitely, committing for one year aligns with its predictable usage and yields the best cost reduction among the listed options. The discounted price applies to your usage each hour, and you cannot be terminated mid-commitment, making it reliable for production workloads.

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