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Study guide for Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
Describe cloud computing
Define cloud computing
Describe the shared responsibility model
Define cloud models, including public, private, and hybrid
Identify appropriate use cases for each cloud model
Describe the consumption-based model
Compare cloud pricing models
Describe serverless
Cloud computing allows individuals and organizations to access and use computing resources (such as servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence) over the internet This technology provides scalable and flexible IT resources, enabling businesses to be more agile, reduce costs, and scale as their business needs change.
The shared responsibility model is a fundamental concept in cloud computing that defines the responsibilities of the cloud service provider (CSP) and the customer to ensure a secure and compliant environment.
Public cloud provide a wide range of cloud services, including computing, analytics, storage, and networking. Users can access these services over the internet and only pay for what they use. The Azure public cloud allows businesses and developers to build, deploy, and manage applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers globally, offering scalability, reliability, and flexibility.
Private cloud refers to a cloud computing environment dedicated solely to one organization. It combines many of the benefits of cloud computing, such as scalability and elasticity, with additional control and customization options. Azure’s private cloud solutions, like Azure Stack, allow businesses to run Azure services from their own datacenter, providing a consistent platform across public and private environments.
Use Cases: Organizations with strict regulatory or data sovereignty requirements, enabling them to leverage cloud technologies while maintaining complete control over their infrastructure.
A hybrid cloud is a computing environment that combines public Azure cloud services with private cloud or on-premises resources. This setup allows for data and applications to be shared between them, providing businesses with greater flexibility, scalability, and deployment options.
Use Cases: It enables organizations to keep sensitive data on-premises or in a private cloud while leveraging the vast computing resources of the Azure public cloud for other tasks.
The consumption-based model is a pricing model where customers pay only for the cloud resources they use, rather than purchasing hardware or software upfront. This model provides flexibility and cost efficiency, as it allows businesses to scale resources up or down based on demand, ensuring they only pay for what they need.
Cloud pricing models can vary significantly among providers and services, but they generally include:
Serverless computing is a execution model in which the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation and provisioning of servers. The customer is abstracted away from managing servers or clusters. Instead, they deploy code that runs in response to events or triggers, and they are billed based on the execution time and resources used by that code, not for idle server space.
Use Cases: Serverless is ideal for applications with variable workloads, microservices architectures, and event-driven scenarios such as IoT applications, web applications, and APIs.
Describe the benefits of using cloud services
Describe the benefits of high availability and scalability in the cloud
Describe the benefits of reliability and predictability in the cloud
Describe the benefits of security and governance in the cloud
Describe the benefits of manageability in the cloud
High Availability: Cloud services are designed to ensure that applications and data are consistently available to users and systems with minimal downtime. This is achieved through redundant and distributed systems across multiple geographical locations, ensuring that if one component fails, another can take over seamlessly.
Benefits:
Scalability: Cloud services can be easily scaled up or down based on demand (elastic). This includes the ability to add more resources (such as computing power or storage) as needed or reduce resources when demand decreases.
Benefits:
Elasticity refers to the ability of a system to automatically scale its resources up or down as needed to match the current demand. This means that the cloud infrastructure can dynamically allocate more computing power, storage, and other resources during peak usage times and scale down during low usage periods, ensuring efficient use of resources and cost optimization. Elasticity enables organizations to handle varying workloads without manual intervention, providing both flexibility and cost-effectiveness.
Reliability: Cloud providers invest heavily in infrastructure, technologies, and best practices to ensure their services are reliable. Data is replicated across multiple locations to prevent loss, and services are monitored continuously to address and mitigate issues proactively.
Benefits:
Predictability: Cloud services offer a predictable environment for deploying and managing applications. With standardized services and operations, businesses can anticipate operational costs and performance levels.
Benefits:
Security: Cloud providers implement robust security measures, including encryption, intrusion detection, and multi-factor authentication. These measures are often more extensive and advanced than what an individual organization could feasibly implement on its own.
Benefits:
Governance: Cloud environments support enhanced governance practices through centralized control and visibility over resources and data. Policies and rules can be uniformly applied, ensuring compliance and proper resource utilization.
Benefits:
Manageability: Cloud services simplify the management of IT resources through automated tools, services, and interfaces. These include automated provisioning, scaling, and maintenance tasks.
Benefits:
Describe cloud service types
Describe infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
Describe platform as a service (PaaS)
Describe software as a service (SaaS)
Identify appropriate use cases for each cloud service type (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS)
Description: IaaS provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. It offers the foundational infrastructure components such as virtual servers, storage, and networking hardware, which users can rent and use to build their own IT platforms.
Use Cases:
Description: PaaS provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without dealing with the complexity of building and maintaining the underlying infrastructure. This model includes development tools, operating systems, database management systems, and more.
Use Cases:
Description: SaaS delivers software applications over the internet, on a subscription basis. With SaaS, cloud providers host and manage the software application and underlying infrastructure, as well as handle maintenance, such as software upgrades and security patching. Users connect to the application over the Internet, typically through a web browser on their phone, tablet, or PC.
Use Cases:
WRITTEN BY
Yashlin Naidoo