IT and Tech Certifications 30 flashcards ~15 min

Cloud Computing Fundamentals

Understand the technology that powers modern software, streaming services, and business infrastructure with this cloud computing fundamentals flashcard deck. Cloud computing has fundamentally transformed how organizations build, deploy, and scale technology...

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About this deck

This deck covers the three main service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), deployment models (public, private, hybrid, multi-cloud), virtualization and containers, key characteristics like elasticity and scalability, major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP), core cloud services, and cloud security considerations. Essential for CompTIA Cloud+, AWS Cloud Practitioner, and anyone starting a career in cloud infrastructure.

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On-demand delivery of computing resources over the internet, typically with pay-as-you-go pricing.

On-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, measured service.

Provides virtualized computing resources (VMs, storage, networks); customer manages OS/apps/data. Example: Amazon EC2.

Provides a platform to build/deploy apps without managing infrastructure. Example: Google App Engine, Heroku.

Complete ready-to-use software delivered over the internet; provider manages everything. Examples: Gmail, Salesforce.

IaaS: customer manages OS+apps+data. PaaS: apps+data only. SaaS: just usage/data.

Infrastructure owned by a third party, shared among customers over the public internet (e.g. AWS, Azure).

Infrastructure dedicated to a single organization — more control/security, less elasticity.

Combination of public and private cloud, allowing data/apps to move between them.

Using services from more than one public cloud provider to avoid vendor lock-in or increase resilience.

Creating software-based versions of physical resources, allowing multiple isolated VMs on one machine.

Software managing VMs and hardware allocation. Type 1 (bare-metal) vs Type 2 (hosted).

Containers share the host OS kernel (lightweight, fast); VMs include a full separate OS. Example: Docker.

An open-source platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized apps.

The ability to automatically scale resources up/down in real time based on demand.

Scalability: general capability to handle growth over time. Elasticity: automatic, real-time adjustment.

Vertical: add power to an existing server. Horizontal: add more servers. Cloud favours horizontal scaling.

A distributed server network caching content closer to users, reducing latency.

Object storage: objects + metadata via HTTP (e.g. S3). Block storage: fixed-size blocks, mounted like a drive (e.g. EBS).

Provider automatically manages server allocation; you pay only for actual compute time used. Example: AWS Lambda.

AWS (market leader), Microsoft Azure (enterprise integration), Google Cloud Platform (data/ML, Kubernetes).

A contract defining expected service levels (e.g. 99.9% uptime) and penalties if unmet.

Defines which security tasks belong to the provider vs the customer; varies by service model.

Legal requirements that data be stored/processed within a specific geographic jurisdiction.

Strategies (backups, multi-region replication, failover) to restore systems after an outage or attack.

An isolated, private network segment within a public cloud provider's infrastructure.

Managing infrastructure via machine-readable config files for automation and consistency. Example: Terraform.

Automatically adjusting active compute instances based on metrics like CPU usage or request count.

Hot: frequently accessed, fast, costlier. Cold: rarely accessed archives, cheap, slower retrieval.

Difficulty switching providers after deep integration; reduced via multi-cloud and open standards/containers.