Azure Fundamentals and Certification [AZ-900] Series-Part(2)

In previous part, we have seen the basic concepts of cloud computing in Azure. Now in this article we will see benefits of cloud computing. This series is based on Microsoft Learning path specifically designed for Azure fundamentals.

Part-1B : Benefits of Cloud Computing

When building or deploying a cloud application, two most important observations should be considered-

  • Availability/Uptime: Azure is a highly available cloud environment with uptime guarantees depending on the service. These guarantees are part of the service-level agreements (SLAs).

 

  • Scalability/Demand: Scalability refers to the ability to adjust resources to meet demand. The other benefit of scalability is that we aren’t overpaying for services. Because the cloud is a consumption-based model, we only pay for what we use. If demand drops off, you can reduce your resources and thereby reduce your costs. Scaling generally comes in two varieties: vertical and horizontal.
    • Vertical scaling: Vertical scaling is focused on increasing or decreasing the capabilities of resources. With vertical scaling, if you were developing an app and you needed more processing power, you could vertically scale up to add more CPUs or RAM to the virtual machine.
    • Horizontal scaling: Horizontal scaling is adding or subtracting the number of resources. With horizontal scaling, if you suddenly experienced a steep jump in demand, your deployed resources could be scaled out (either automatically or manually).In the same manner, if there was a significant drop in demand, deployed resources could be scaled in (either automatically or manually), scaling in.

Benefits of cloud computing– Apart from Availability and scaling, lets look into other benefits of cloud computing-

  • Reliability: Reliability is the ability of a system to recover from failures and continue to function. It’s also one of the pillars of the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework. With a decentralized design, the cloud enables you to have resources deployed in regions around the world. With this global scale, even if one region has a catastrophic event other regions are still up and running. You can design your applications to automatically take advantage of this increased reliability.
  • Predictability: Predictability in the cloud lets you move forward with confidence. Predictability can be focused on performance predictability or cost predictability. Both performance and cost predictability are heavily influenced by the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework.
    • Performance predictability: Auto scaling, load balancing, and high availability are just some of the cloud concepts that support performance predictability.
    • Cost predictability: Cost predictability is focused on predicting or forecasting the cost of the cloud spend. By operating in the cloud and using cloud analytics and information, you can predict future costs and adjust your resources as needed. Tools like the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or Pricing Calculator can be used to get an estimate of potential cloud spend.
  • Governance: Using IaaS, all deployed resources must meet corporate standards and government regulatory requirements. We can update all deployed resources to new standards as standards change. Cloud-based auditing helps flag any resource that’s out of compliance with your corporate standards and provides mitigation strategies. Depending on your operating model, software patches and updates may also automatically be applied, which helps with both governance and security.
  • Security: For maximum control, infrastructure as a service provides you with physical resources but lets you manage the operating systems and installed software, including patches and maintenance. To manage patches and maintenance automatically, platform as a service or software as a service deployments may be the best cloud strategy.

Azure

  • Manageability: There are two types of manageability for cloud computing-
    • Management of the cloud
      • Automatically scale resource deployment based on need.
      • Deploy resources based on a preconfigured template, removing the need for manual configuration.
      • Monitor the health of resources and automatically replace failing resources.
      • Receive automatic alerts based on configured metrics, so you’re aware of performance in real time.
    • Management in the cloud
      • Through a web portal.
      • Using a command line interface.
      • Using APIs.
      • Using PowerShell.
  • Fault Tolerance is the ability of the cloud services to function and be available to the user, despite any failures.

Question for AZ-900:

1.What are two benefits of cloud computing? Each correct answer presents a complete solution.

NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.

  1. enables the rapid provisioning of resources (Ans)
  2. has increased administrative complexity
  3. has the same configuration options as on-premises
  4. shifts capital expenditures (CAPEX) to operating expenditures (OPEX) (Ans)

2.Match the cloud computing benefits to the appropriate descriptions.

Azure

3.Match the cloud computing benefits to the appropriate descriptions.

Azure

4.Your company hosts an accounting application named AppX that is used by all the customers of the company.  AppX has low usage during the first three weeks of each month and very high usage during the last week of each month. Which benefit of Azure Cloud Services supports cost management for this type of usage pattern?

  1. high availability
  2. high latency
  3. elasticity (Ans)
  4. load balancing

5.One of the benefits of Azure SQL Data Warehouse is that high availability is built into the platform.

Instructions: Review the underlined text. If it makes the statement correct, select “No change is needed”. If the statement is incorrect, select the answer choice that makes the statement correct.

  1. No change is needed (Ans)
  2. automatic scaling
  3. data compression
  4. versioning

In the next part, We will cover Azure architectural components.

Thank You!!!

Gopenly