CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ (CLO-002)Business Principles of Cloud EnvironmentsMedium
A startup is developing a new mobile application and wants to ensure that its backend services can automatically scale to handle fluctuating user loads, without requiring manual intervention from their small development team. They also want to avoid managing the underlying servers and operating systems. Which cloud service model would best meet these requirements?
- AFunction as a Service (FaaS)
- BSoftware as a Service (SaaS)
- CInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- DPlatform as a Service (PaaS)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a complete development and deployment environment, allowing developers to focus on writing code without managing the underlying infrastructure like servers, operating systems, or scaling. This directly addresses the startup's need for automatic scaling and minimal infrastructure management.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. FaaS (serverless computing) is a subset of PaaS, focusing on event-driven functions. While it offers auto-scaling and no server management, PaaS is a broader category that encompasses the full backend service development environment implied.
- B. SaaS provides a complete, ready-to-use application, not a platform for developing new applications.
- C. IaaS provides virtualized computing resources, but the user still manages the OS and applications, requiring more effort than desired.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
A cloud computing model that provides a complete environment for developing, running, and managing applications, abstracting the underlying infrastructure.
- Focus on application development
- Managed operating systems and middleware
- Automatic scaling often included
Memory trick: Remember the levels of a building: SaaS is the apartment, PaaS is the floor with amenities, IaaS is the foundation.