- LPU MCA Semester 1
- CAP470
- Unit 1
CAP470 · Unit 1: Introduction to cloud computing
Cloud platforms, comparison of providers and cloud optimization
10 practice questions · in the MTE and ETE syllabus
Key points
- AWS, Azure and GCP are the big three
- Right-size, auto-scale and schedule to cut waste
- Committed plans suit steady loads, spot suits flexible work
- Compare services, price, regions, compliance and lock-in
The leading public cloud platforms are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
| Need | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual machines | EC2 | Virtual Machines | Compute Engine |
| Object storage | S3 | Blob Storage | Cloud Storage |
| Managed relational database | RDS | Azure SQL Database | Cloud SQL |
| Serverless functions | Lambda | Functions | Cloud Functions |
Compare providers on services, pricing model, regions and compliance, performance, support and lock-in risk.
Optimization means matching capacity and spend to real demand: right-size instances after monitoring (for example, a VM at 10 percent CPU), use auto-scaling, schedule non-production resources to stop when idle, use reserved or committed-use plans for steady loads, use spot instances only for interruptible work, and monitor costs with budgets and alerts.
Exam trap: the cheapest list price is not always the cheapest total cost once features, support and data transfer are included.
Try two questions
A team compares providers and chooses the one with the lowest price for the same workload, with similar features. Which factor is mainly guiding the choice?
- Brand colour of the provider's website
- Number of letters in the provider's name
- Cost comparison of pricing models
- Distance of the provider's office from the team
Show the answer
C. Pricing model and total cost are main criteria when features are similar.
Why not A: Appearance does not affect the workload cost.
Why not B: The length of a name is irrelevant.
Why not D: Office distance does not affect service price.
Monitoring shows a VM uses about 10 percent of its CPU all the time. Which action best optimizes cost?
- Upgrade the VM to a larger instance type
- Right-size the VM to a smaller instance type
- Add several more identical VMs of the same size
- Disable monitoring so alerts stop appearing
Show the answer
B. Right-sizing matches capacity to measured use and removes wasted spend.
Why not A: A larger VM raises cost for a lightly used machine.
Why not C: More VMs raise cost without need.
Why not D: Disabling monitoring does not reduce waste.