This GCDL practice question tests your understanding of why cloud technology is transforming business. 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 business wants to reduce the time to market for new features by enabling developers to provision infrastructure without waiting for IT. Which cloud attribute supports this?
Disaster recovery
Why wrong: Disaster recovery is for recovering from failures, not speed of provisioning.
Broad network access
Why wrong: Broad network access refers to network connectivity, not provisioning speed.
High availability
Why wrong: High availability ensures systems are running, not immediate provisioning.
On-demand self-service
Self-service enables instant resource provisioning without IT intervention.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
On-demand self-service
On-demand self-service (Option D) is the correct answer because it allows developers to provision infrastructure automatically without requiring human interaction from IT. This cloud attribute, defined by NIST SP 800-145, enables users to unilaterally provision computing resources as needed, directly reducing time to market by eliminating manual approval and setup delays.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Disaster recovery
Why it's wrong here
Disaster recovery is for recovering from failures, not speed of provisioning.
Broad network access
Why it's wrong here
Broad network access refers to network connectivity, not provisioning speed.
High availability
Why it's wrong here
High availability ensures systems are running, not immediate provisioning.
On-demand self-service
Why this is correct
Self-service enables instant resource provisioning without IT intervention.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Google Cloud often tests the distinction between 'on-demand self-service' and 'broad network access' by presenting scenarios where remote access is confused with automated provisioning, leading candidates to incorrectly choose broad network access.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, on-demand self-service relies on APIs (e.g., AWS EC2 RunInstances, Azure Resource Manager REST APIs) that automate resource creation, often orchestrated by Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform or CloudFormation. A subtle behavior is that this attribute requires robust identity and access management (IAM) policies to prevent resource sprawl, as developers can provision resources in seconds without IT oversight. In a real-world scenario, a developer can spin up a test environment via a CLI command, run integration tests, and tear it down—all within minutes—dramatically shortening the development cycle.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
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FAQ
Why cloud technology is transforming business — This question tests Why cloud technology is transforming business — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: On-demand self-service — On-demand self-service (Option D) is the correct answer because it allows developers to provision infrastructure automatically without requiring human interaction from IT. This cloud attribute, defined by NIST SP 800-145, enables users to unilaterally provision computing resources as needed, directly reducing time to market by eliminating manual approval and setup delays.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
This GCDL practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud 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 GCDL exam.
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