30 Questions
What prompted the shift from mainframes to commodity servers in IT data centers?
The advent of fast and inexpensive microprocessors
What was the primary reason mainframes had to operate at high utilization rates?
Because they were very expensive
Which type of computers became popular among small businesses and on college campuses from 1960 to 1980?
Minicomputers
What is the primary goal of distributed computing?
To make a network work as a single computer
What is a characteristic of a distributed system?
It consists of multiple software components that are on multiple computers
What type of microprocessor was used in personal computers from 1970 to 1990?
VLSI microprocessor
What is the primary focus of most production grids, such as TeraGrid and EGEE?
Sharing compute and storage resources across different administrative domains
What is a characteristic of a computing grid?
A dynamic aggregation of heterogeneous computing nodes
What is the benefit of grid computing in terms of resources?
It enables transparent access to distributed resources
What is the primary advantage of cloud computing in terms of hardware?
It allows for the use of virtual hardware
What is a challenge of managing large amounts of data with personal computers?
It becomes difficult for computers to process and manage the data
What is a key difference between cluster computing and grid computing?
Scale, with grid computing being nationwide or worldwide
What is the primary characteristic of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)?
It is a self-contained module designed for business functionalities
What enables people to access content and run applications over the internet?
Network connection and bandwidth
What is the primary advantage of Web 2.0 services?
They offer predefined blocks or templates for easy use
What is the role of internet technologies in cloud computing?
They rely on centralized management and network connection
What is the characteristic of web services like XML and HTTP?
They use common mechanisms for web delivery services
What is the primary advantage of hosting a website on the internet?
It allows anyone to create multiple websites
What is the main benefit of advance reservations of capacity in IaaS providers?
Ensuring resource availability at a specific time frame
What is the primary function of automatic scaling in IaaS providers?
To set conditions for scaling up and down based on application metrics
What is the main purpose of a service-level agreement (SLA) in IaaS providers?
To express the provider's commitment to delivery of a certain quality of service
What is the typical hypervisor used in IaaS offerings?
Open-source Xen
What is the result of automatic scaling increasing the number of virtual servers?
Automatically distributing traffic among available servers
What is the benefit of Amazon Reserved Instances?
Paying a fixed amount of money in advance to guarantee resource availability
What is a key requirement for IaaS providers to deploy and maintain their cloud offerings?
Expertise in low-level aspects such as Linux, networking, and virtualization
What is the main purpose of a persistence layer in PaaS platforms?
To allow applications to record their state and recover it in case of crashes
What is the main difference between IaaS and PaaS providers?
IaaS requires expertise in low-level aspects, while PaaS provides a high-level abstraction
What is the name of Amazon Web Services' virtual server offering?
EC2
What is the primary benefit of using PaaS providers?
Little or no concern to low-level details of the platform
What is the purpose of Amazon Web Services' SimpleDB service?
Structured data storage
Learn about the history of cloud computing, from the early mainframes to the modern era. Understand how the development of microprocessors and data centers led to the rise of cloud computing. Test your knowledge of the roots of cloud technology!
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