Cloud Computing Viva Voice Questions

Q.1 What is cloud computing?

Answer - Cloud computing is the delivery of different services through the Internet. These resources
include tools and applications like data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software.
Rather than keeping files on a proprietary hard drive or local storage device, cloud-based storage
makes it possible to save them to a remote database. As long as an electronic device has access to
the web, it has access to the data and the software programs to run it.

Cloud computing is a popular option for people and businesses for a number of reasons including
cost savings, increased productivity, speed and efficiency, performance, and security.

Q.2 Explain the characteristics of cloud computing as per NIST?

Answer - There are basically 5 essential characteristics of Cloud Computing.
On-demand self-services:

The Cloud computing services does not require any human administrators, user themselves are able
to provision, monitor and manage computing resources as needed.

Broad network access:

The Computing services are generally provided over standard networks and heterogeneous devices.

Rapid elasticity:

The Computing services should have IT resources that are able to scale out and in quickly and on as
needed basis. Whenever the user require services it is provided to him and it is scale out as soon as
its requirement gets over.

Resource pooling:

The IT resource (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) present are shared
across multiple applications and occupant in an uncommitted manner. Multiple clients are provided
service from a same physical resource.

Measured service:

The resource utilization is tracked for each application and occupant, it will provide both the user
and the resource provider with an account of what has been used. This is done for various reasons
like monitoring billing and effective use of resource.

Q.3 Explain cloud Ecosystem ?

Answer - A cloud ecosystem is a complex system of interdependent components that all work
together to enable cloud services. In nature, an ecosystem is composed of living and nonliving things
that are connected and work together. In cloud computing, the ecosystem consists of hardware and
software as well as cloud customers, cloud engineers, consultants, integrators and partners.
In a cloud ecosystem, it is also easier to aggregate data and analyze how each part of the system
affects the other parts. For example, if an ecosystem consists of patient records, smart device logs
and healthcare provider records, it becomes possible to analyze patterns across an entire patient
population.

Q.4. Explain Service Models Of Cloud Computing ?

Answer - Cloud computing makes it possible to render several services, which can be defined
according to the roles, service providers and the user companies. Cloud computing models and
services are broadly classified as below:

IAAS: Changing Its Hardware Infrastructure on Demand

The Infrastructure As A Service (IAAS) means the outsourcing of the physical infrastructure of IT
(network, storage, and servers) from a third party provider. The IT resources are hosted on external
servers and users can access them via an internet connection.

The Benefits

Time and cost savings: more installation and maintenance of IT hardware in-house, Better flexibility:
On-demand hardware resources that can be tailored to your needs,

• Remote access and resource management.

This cloud computing service model is ideal for large accounts, enterprises or organizations capable
of building and managing their own IT platforms. However, they want the flexibility to amend their
infrastructure according to their needs.

PAAS: Providing A Flexible Environment For Your Software Applications

Platform as a Service (PAAS) allows outsourcing of hardware infrastructure as well software

environment, which includes databases, integration layers, runtimes and more.

The Benefits

• Mastering the installation and development of software applications

• Time saving and flexibility for development projects: no need to manage the implementation
of the platform, instant production.

• Data security: You control the distribution, protection, and backup of your business data.

It is ideal for companies wanting to maintain control over their business applications. However, they
wish to get rid of constraints to manage the hardware infrastructure and software environment.

SAAS: Releasing The User Experience Of Management Constraints Software as a Service (SaaS) is
provided over the internet and requires no prior installation. These services can be availed from any
part of the world at a minimal per month fee.

The Advantages
You are entirely free from the infrastructure management and aligning software environment: no
installation or software maintenance.You benefit from automatic updates with the guarantee that all
users have the same software version.It enables easy and quicker testing of new software solutions.

Q.5 Discuss different type of cloud computing Deployment Model.

Answer - Private Cloud
It is a cloud-based infrastructure used by stand-alone organizations. It offers greater control over
security. The data is backed up by a firewall and internally, and can be hosted internally or
externally. Private clouds are perfect for organizations that have high-security requirements, high
management demands, and availability requirements.

Public Cloud

This type of cloud services is provided on a network for public use. Customers have no control over
the location of the infrastructure. It is based on a shared cost model for all the users, or in the form
of a licensing policy such as pay per user. Public deployment models in the cloud are perfect for
organizations with growing and fluctuating demands. It is also popular among businesses of all sizes
for their web applications, webmail, and storage of non-sensitive data.

Community Cloud

It is a mutually shared model between organizations that belong to a particular community such as
banks, government organizations, or commercial enterprises. Community members generally share
similar issues of privacy, performance, and security. This type of deployment model of cloud
computing is managed and hosted internally or by a third-party vendor.

Hybrid Cloud

This model incorporates the best of both private and public clouds, but each can remain as separate
entities. Further, as part of this deployment of cloud computing model, the internal, or external
providers can provide resources. A hybrid cloud is ideal for scalability, flexibility, and security. A
perfect example of this scenario would be that of an organization who uses the private cloud to
secure their data and interacts with its customers using the public cloud.

Q.6 Define Cloud Management & Virtualization Technology

Answer - Virtualization in Cloud Computing is making a virtual platform of server operating system
and storage devices. This will help the user by providing multiple machines at the same time it also
allows sharing a single physical instance of resource or an application to multiple users. Cloud
Virtualizations also manage the workload by transforming traditional computing and make it more
scalable, economical and efficient.
Virtualizations in Cloud Computing rapidly integrating the fundamental way of computing. One of
the important features of virtualization is that it allows sharing of applications to multiple customers
and companies. Cloud Computing can also be known as services and application delivered to help
the virtualized environment. This environment can be either public or private. With the help of
virtualization, the customer can maximize the resources and reduces the physical system which is in
need.

Types of Virtualization in Cloud Computing

 • Operating System Virtualization
• Hardware Virtualization
• Server Virtualization
• Storage Virtualization

Q.7 Explain VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)

Answer - Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is defined as the hosting of desktop environments on a
central server. It is a form of desktop virtualization, as the specific desktop images run within virtual
machines (VMs) and are delivered to end clients over a network. Those endpoints may be PCs or
other devices, like tablets or thin client terminals.
How does VDI work?
In all VDI deployments, the following characteristics apply:
 The virtual desktops live within VMs on a centralized server
 Each virtual desktop includes an operating system image, typically Microsoft Windows
 The VMs are host-based, meaning multiple instances of them can housed on the same
server within the data center
 End clients must be constantly connected to the centrally managed server in order to
maintain access to the virtualized desktops it’s hosting
 The VDI implementation’s connection broker finds a virtual desktop within the resource pool
for each client to connect to upon its successful access of the VDI environment
 Meanwhile, a hypervisor creates, runs and manages the various host machine VMs that
encapsulate the individual virtual desktop environments

Q.8 What are third party cloud services

Answer - Third-party services are web-based technologies that are not exclusively operated or
controlled by a government entity or that involve significant participation of a nongovernment
entity. The FTC uses third-party services to assist it in communicating or interacting with the public.
A cloud service provider is a third-party company offering a cloud-based platform, infrastructure,
application or storage services. Much like a homeowner would pay for a utility such as electricity or
gas, companies typically have to only pay for the amount of cloud services they use, as business
demands require .

Q.9 Explain the benefits of VLAN and VSAN

Answer - A virtual local area network (VLAN) is a logical group of workstations, servers and network
devices that appear to be on the same LAN despite their geographical distribution .A VLAN allows a
network of computers and users to communicate in a simulated environment as if they exist in a
single LAN and are sharing a single broadcast and multicast domain. VLANs are implemented to
achieve scalability, security and ease of network management and can quickly adapt to changes in
network requirements and relocation of workstations and server nodes.
The key benefits of implementing VLANs include:

Allowing network administrators to apply additional security to network Communication Making

expansion and relocation of a network or a network device easier Providing flexibility because
administrators are able to configure in a centralized environment while the devices might be located
in different geographical locations Decreasing the latency and traffic load on the network and the
network devices, offering increased performance
A virtual storage area network (VSAN) is a logical partitioning created within a physical storage area
network. This implementation model of a storage virtualization technique divides and allocates

some or an entire storage area network into one or more logical SANs to be used by internal or
external IT services and solutions. A VSAN is identified with a unique ID, which is a number, and is
also assigned a name. While creating a VSAN it is mapped to a VLAN which it will use to carry the

Fibre Channel traffic over Ethernet A virtual storage area network is primarily implemented in cloud
computing and virtualization environments. A VSAN allows end users and organizations to provision
a logical storage area network on top of the physical SAN through storage virtualization.

Q.10 What are the various cloud computing security challenges and different cloud security
services
Answer - Cloud security involves the procedures and technology that secure cloud computing
environments against both external and insider cybersecurity threats. Cloud computing, which is the
delivery of information technology services over the internet, has become a must for businesses and
governments seeking to accelerate innovation and collaboration. Cloud security and security
management best practices designed to prevent unauthorized access are required to keep data and
applications in the cloud secure from current and emerging cybersecurity threats
Cloud computing categories

Cloud security differs based on the category of cloud computing being used. There are four main
categories of cloud computing:

Public cloud services, operated by a public cloud provider — These include software-as-a-service
(SaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and platform-as-a-service (PaaS).

Private cloud services, operated by a public cloud provider — These services provide a computing
environment dedicated to one customer, operated by a third party.

Private cloud services, operated by internal staff — These services are an evolution of the
traditional data center, where internal staff operates a virtual environment they control.

Hybrid cloud services — Private and public cloud computing configurations can be combined,
hosting workloads and data based on optimizing factors such as cost, security, operations and
access. Operation will involve internal staff, and optionally the public cloud provider.

Q.11 Explain cloud service provider and their components?

Answer - Components in a cloud refers to the platforms, like front end, back end and cloud based
delivery and the network that used. All together forms an architecture for cloud computing. With
the main components like SAAS, PAAS and IAAS there are 11 more major categories in cloud
computing.
1. Storage-as-a-Service
2. Database-as-a-Service
3. Information-as-a-Service
4. Process-as-a-Service
5. Application-as-a-Service
6. Platform-as-a-Service
7. Integration-as-a-Service
 8. Security-as-a-Service
9. Management-as-a-service
10. Testing-as-a-Service
11. Infrastructure-as-a-Service

Q.12 Explain the concept of Hadoop ?

Answer - Apache Hadoop is an open source software framework used to develop data processing
applications which are executed in a distributed computing environment.
Applications built using HADOOP are run on large data sets distributed across clusters of commodity
computers. Commodity computers are cheap and widely available. These are mainly useful for
achieving greater computational power at low cost.

Apache Hadoop consists of two sub-projects –

1. Hadoop MapReduce: MapReduce is a computational model and software framework for

writing applications which are run on Hadoop. These MapReduce programs are capable of
processing enormous data in parallel on large clusters of computation nodes.

2. HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System): HDFS takes care of the storage part of Hadoop
applications. MapReduce applications consume data from HDFS. HDFS creates multiple replicas of
data blocks and distributes them on compute nodes in a cluster. This distribution enables reliable
and extremely rapid computations.

Q.13 Explain Cloud security challenges ?

Answer - Since data in the public cloud is being stored by a third party and accessed over the
internet, several challenges arise in the ability to maintain a secure cloud. These are:
Visibility into cloud data — In many cases, cloud services are accessed outside of the corporate
network and from devices not managed by IT. This means that the IT team needs the ability to see
into the cloud service itself to have full visibility over data, as opposed to traditional means of
monitoring network traffic.

Control over cloud data — In a third-party cloud service provider’s environment, IT teams have less
access to data than when they controlled servers and applications on their own premises. Cloud
customers are given limited control by default, and access to underlying physical infrastructure is
unavailable.

Access to cloud data and applications —Users may access cloud applications and data over the
internet, making access controls based on the traditional data center network perimeter no longer
effective. User access can be from any location or device, including bring-your-own-device (BYOD)
technology. In addition, privileged access by cloud provider personnel could bypass your own
security controls.

Compliance — Use of cloud computing services adds another dimension to regulatory and internal
compliance. Your cloud environment may need to adhere to regulatory requirements such as HIPAA,
PCI and Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as requirements from internal teams, partners and customers. Cloud
provider infrastructure, as well as interfaces between in-house systems and the cloud are also
included in compliance and risk management processes.

Cloud-native breaches – Data breaches in the cloud are unlike on-premises breaches, in that data
theft often occurs using native functions of the cloud. A Cloud-native breach is a series of actions by
an adversarial actor in which they “land” their attack by exploiting errors or vulnerabilities in a cloud
deployment without using malware, “expand” their access through weakly configured or protected
interfaces to locate valuable data, and “exfiltrate” that data to their own storage location.

Misconfiguration – Cloud-native breaches often fall to a cloud customer’s responsibility for security,
which includes the configuration of the cloud service. Research shows that just 26% of companies
can currently audit their IaaS environments for configuration errors. Misconfiguration of IaaS often
acts as the front door to a Cloud-native breach, allowing the attacker to successfully land and then
move on to expand and exfiltrate data. Research also shows 99% of misconfigurations go unnoticed
in IaaS by cloud customers. Here’s an excerpt from this study showing this level of misconfiguration
disconnect:

Disaster recovery – Cybersecurity planning is needed to protect the effects of significant negative
breaches. A disaster recovery plan includes policies, procedures, and tools designed to enable the
recovery of data and allow an organization to continue operations and business.

Insider threats – A rogue employee is capable of using cloud services to expose an organization to a
cybersecurity breach. A recent McAfee Cloud Adoption and Risk Report revealed irregular activity
indicative of insider threat in 85% of organizations.

Q.14. How Virtualization Works?

Answer - Virtualization in Cloud Computing is a process in which the user of cloud shares the data
present in the cloud which can be application software etc. It provides a virtual environment in the
cloud which can be software hardware or any other thing. In virtualization, the server and the
software application which are required by the cloud providers maintain by the third party and in
this, the cloud provider please some amount to the third party. It is done because it will be costly if a
new version of an application is released and it has to be introduced to the customers.
It can be also explained in a way that with the help of Hypervisor which is software the cloud
customer can access server. A hypervisor is connectivity between the server and the virtual
environment and distributes the resources between different virtual environments.

Q.15 Benefits of Virtualization

Answer –Various benefits are as follows -
1. Security - During the process of virtualization security is one of the important concerns. The
security can be provided with the help of firewalls, which will help to prevent unauthorized
access and will keep the data confidential. Moreover, with the help of firewall and security,
the data can protect from harmful viruses malware and other cyber threats.
2. Flexible operations - With the help of a virtual network, the work of it professional is
becoming more efficient and agile. The network switch implement today is very easy to use,
flexible and saves time.
3. Economical - Virtualization in Cloud Computing, save the cost for a physical system such as
hardware and servers. It stores all the data in the virtual server, which are quite economical.
4. Eliminates the risk of system failure - While performing some task there are chances that
the system might crash down at the wrong time. This failure can cause damage to the
company but the virtualizations help you to perform the same task in multiple devices at the
same time.
5. Flexible transfer of data - The data can transfer to the virtual server and retrieve anytime.
The customers or cloud provider don’t have to waste time finding out hard drives to find
data. With the help of virtualization, it will very easy to locate the required data and transfer
them to the allotted authorities.

Q.16 Benefits of a cloud ecosystem ?

Answer - Companies can use a cloud ecosystem to build new business models. It becomes relatively
easy for a medical device manufacturer, for example, to launch a heart-monitoring service on its
cloud service provider's cloud infrastructure and then sell the service alongside its main business of
manufacturing heart monitors for hospitals.
In a cloud ecosystem, it is also easier to aggregate data and analyze how each part of the system
affects the other parts. For example, if an ecosystem consists of patient records, smart device logs
and healthcare provider records, it becomes possible to analyze patterns across an entire patient
population.

Q.17 What is cloud interoperability?

Answer - Interoperability is the ability of two or more systems or applications to exchange
information and to mutually use the information that has been exchanged. Cloud interoperability is
the ability of a customer’s system to interact with a cloud service or the ability for one cloud service
to interact with other cloud services by exchanging information according to a prescribed method to
obtain predictable results

Q.18 What is Cloud Portability ?

Answer - Portability, on the other hand, is moving the data and/or applications from one system to
another and having it remain useable or executable. Cloud data portability is the ability to easily
move data from one cloud service to another without needing to re-enter the data. Cloud
application portability is the ability to migrate an application from one cloud service to another or
between a customer’s environment and a cloud service.

Q.19 Explain the advantages of cloud computing ?

Answer - Cloud-based software offers companies from all sectors a number of benefits, including the
ability to use software from any device either via a native app or a browser. As a result, users can
carry their files and settings over to other devices in a completely seamless manner.
Cloud computing is far more than just accessing files on multiple devices
The cloud structure allows individuals to save storage space on their desktops or laptops.

Q.20 Explain Cloud adoption and rudiments?

Answer - Adoption term states that accepting the services of new Technology. Adoption means
following some kind of new trend or existing trend or a technology.

Cloud rudiments means that the services provided through cloud such as Resource aggregation and
integration: - Cloud solution integrates or aggregates the information of virtualization management,
physical server provisioning, system management.