When describing cloud computing against the widely referenced definition, which of the following is one of the essential characteristics that a service must exhibit to be considered cloud computing?
- APerpetual licensing, where capacity is purchased once as a fixed asset rather than consumed as a metered service.
- BMandatory single tenancy, where each customer is guaranteed physically dedicated hardware for every workload.
- CRapid elasticity, where capabilities can be provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale with demand. Correct
- DGuaranteed data residency, where the provider contractually fixes the country in which all customer data is stored.
Why A is wrong: This contradicts the definition; cloud computing is characterised by measured, metered service, not by one-off perpetual capacity purchases.
Why B is wrong: This is tempting on security grounds, but the definition relies on resource pooling and multitenancy, so dedicated single tenancy is not an essential characteristic.
Why C is correct: Correct: rapid elasticity is one of the five essential characteristics, allowing capacity to expand and contract quickly to match demand.
Why D is wrong: Data residency is a real contractual and legal concern, but it is not one of the essential characteristics that define cloud computing in the reference definition.