Cloud Architecture & Deployment Principles Flashcards

What is a key benefit of using a multi-AZ deployment for applications on AWS?

Answer: It ensures high availability and fault tolerance

A multi-AZ (Availability Zone) deployment for applications on AWS is a key strategy to ensure high availability and fault tolerance. By distributing application components across multiple physically distinct Availability Zones within a region, your application can withstand the failure of a single AZ without downtime. This architecture significantly improves resilience and business continuity.

Which AWS service allows you to launch and manage virtual servers?

Answer: Amazon EC2

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is the AWS service that allows you to launch and manage virtual servers, known as instances, in the cloud. You can choose from various instance types, operating systems, and storage options to meet your application's specific needs. EC2 provides scalable compute capacity, enabling you to run a wide range of workloads.

Why are stateless applications ideal for cloud deployment?

Answer: They can scale and recover more efficiently

Stateless applications are ideal for cloud deployment because they do not store any session-specific data on the server, making each request independent. This characteristic allows them to be easily scaled horizontally by adding more instances without complex data synchronization. Furthermore, they can recover more efficiently from failures, as any instance can serve any request without losing user context, enhancing resilience and elasticity.

What is the role of Amazon CloudFront in cloud architecture?

Answer: Content delivery with low latency

Amazon CloudFront is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) service. Its primary role is to securely deliver data, videos, applications, and APIs to customers globally with low latency. It achieves this by caching content at edge locations closer to users, reducing the distance data needs to travel.

Which design principle promotes system reliability in AWS?

Answer: Design for failure

The 'Design for failure' principle in AWS promotes system reliability by anticipating that components will inevitably fail. Instead of trying to prevent all failures, this principle focuses on designing systems that can gracefully handle and recover from failures, ensuring continuous availability and resilience.

What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?

Answer: Using code to provision and manage infrastructure

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the practice of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than manual hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. This approach allows infrastructure to be treated like software, enabling version control, automation, and consistent deployments.

Which AWS service is used for managing containerized applications?

Answer: Amazon ECS

Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) is a fully managed container orchestration service that makes it easy to run, stop, and manage Docker containers on a cluster. It integrates with other AWS services, providing a scalable and highly available platform for containerized applications.

What is the purpose of an Auto Scaling group in AWS?

Answer: To automatically adjust capacity to maintain performance

An Auto Scaling group in AWS is designed to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances in your application to maintain performance and availability. It dynamically adds or removes instances based on predefined policies, ensuring your application has sufficient capacity to handle demand without over-provisioning.

Which principle helps optimize performance in cloud deployments?

Answer: Select services based on workload needs

Optimizing performance in cloud deployments involves selecting the most appropriate AWS services and resources for specific workload needs. This ensures that the chosen services (e.g., instance types, database solutions) are well-suited to the application's requirements, leading to efficient resource utilization and better performance outcomes.