Cloud Digital Leader Scaling with Google Cloud operations Practice Question
A company's cloud team is asked to demonstrate that their infrastructure changes are repeatable and auditable. They use Terraform configuration files committed to a Git repository to define all cloud resources. Which operational practice does this exemplify?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse the operational practice of IaC with its secondary benefits (like disaster recovery or cost optimization), but the question explicitly asks about repeatability and auditability, which are direct outcomes of version-controlled IaC.
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
✓
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) managed through version control, providing repeatable and auditable infrastructure changes
By storing Terraform configuration files in a Git repository, the team treats infrastructure definitions as code, enabling version control, peer review, and a complete audit trail of changes. This is the core principle of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), which ensures that every infrastructure change is repeatable because the exact same configuration can be applied multiple times, and auditable because Git history records who changed what and when.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) managed through version control, providing repeatable and auditable infrastructure changes
Why this is correct
This exactly describes IaC + GitOps. Terraform configurations in Git provide repeatability (same config → same infrastructure) and auditability (Git history shows every change, who made it, and when). This is a foundational cloud operations best practice.
- ✗
Manual change management, where each infrastructure change is recorded in a spreadsheet for audit purposes
Why it's wrong here
Spreadsheet-based change management lacks the integrity and unambiguity of Git codified infrastructure: every edit is silently overwriteable, has no reviewed commit, no immutable timestamp, and no automatic diff of intended vs. actual state. Errors propagate quietly and rollback is impossible, whereas version-controlled IaC gives peer review, signed commits, and deterministic redeployment from any tagged revision. This is precisely the brittle, manual practice IaC evolves past.
- ✗
Disaster recovery planning, using configuration files to document what needs to be rebuilt after a failure
Why it's wrong here
Viewing IaC mainly as disaster recovery documentation confuses the side effect with the core practice. In DR, configuration files merely describe the target topology, but the daily value of IaC lives in every routine change being code-reviewed, applied through CI/CD, and captured in Git history for full auditable provenance. DR is a beneficiary of that reproducibility, not the reason the practice exists.
- ✗
Cost optimization, by defining infrastructure in code to enable automatic right-sizing of resources
Why it's wrong here
IaC does not automatically right-size anything; it only declares the desired server/container specs, and any adjustment to those specs remains a manual code edit or an external autoscaling policy. Cost optimization is a possible outcome of codified tagging, limits, and lifecycle rules, but it is not the defining purpose, nor is 'right-sizing' an inherent IaC behavior. The primary contract IaC guarantees is repeatable, auditable state, not financial efficiency.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Cloud Digital Transformation
Key term
Audit
An audit is a systematic, independent review of IT systems, processes, and controls to verify compliance with policies, standards, and regulations.
Key term
Audit trail
An audit trail is a chronological record of events, changes, or activities in a system that provides evidence of who did what, when, and from where.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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