CCSP - Cloud Concepts, Architecture and Design (17% of the exam) - Section 1.1
Understand cloud computing concepts.
Cloud computing definitions and roles (customer, provider, partner, broker, regulator), the key characteristics of on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service, and the building-block technologies underneath them.
NIST SP 800-145cloud computing rolesessential characteristics of cloud computingmultitenancyvirtualisation
Practice question for this objective
lock_openFree sampleCloud Concepts, Architecture and Designmedium
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.check_circle Correct
DGuaranteed data residency, where the provider contractually fixes the country in which all customer data is stored.
Recall rapid elasticity as one of the five essential characteristics in the standard cloud computing definition. The reference definition lists five essential characteristics, on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service; rapid elasticity is the property that lets capability be provisioned and released quickly to track demand.
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.
Exam traps in Cloud Concepts, Architecture and Design
Answers that look right on this material and are not. Each one is a distractor from a different question in the CCSP bank for this domain.
The cloud service provider, which makes the service available and is responsible for operating the underlying infrastructure
errorWhy it is wrong: The provider supplies the service rather than consuming it; the role names are easy to reverse, but the question asks specifically for the consuming party.
Broad network access, where capabilities are available over the network and reached through standard client platforms such as browsers and mobile devices
errorWhy it is wrong: Broad network access concerns reachability across varied devices; it is tempting because a portal runs over the network, but the scenario stresses provisioning without staff, not device reach.
It meters each virtual machine's consumption so the provider can bill tenants accurately for the resources they use
errorWhy it is wrong: Metering and billing belong to measured service; virtualisation can support usage tracking but its defining role is hardware abstraction, not billing.