CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ (CLO-002)Business Principles of Cloud EnvironmentsMedium
A company has migrated several applications to a cloud provider and is now responsible for configuring network access control lists (ACLs) and security groups, installing and patching operating systems, and managing application-level security. The cloud provider is managing the underlying physical infrastructure, virtualization, and storage. Which cloud service model is MOST accurately described by this shared responsibility model?
- APlatform as a Service (PaaS)
- BSoftware as a Service (SaaS)
- CFunction as a Service (FaaS)
- DInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
In an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, the cloud provider is responsible for the physical infrastructure up to the virtualization layer. The customer is responsible for everything above that, including operating systems, network configuration (ACLs, security groups), and applications.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. PaaS has the provider managing the OS and runtime, with the customer focusing on applications and data.
- B. SaaS has the provider managing almost everything, with the customer only responsible for data and user access.
- C. FaaS is a serverless execution model, a subset of PaaS, where the customer manages even less.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
A cloud computing service model where the provider offers virtualized computing resources over the internet, and the customer manages operating systems, applications, and data.
- Provider manages physical infrastructure, virtualization, networking, storage.
- Customer manages OS, middleware, runtime, applications, data.
- Offers the most control over the infrastructure (compared to PaaS/SaaS).
Memory trick: IaaS: I manage OS, they manage hardware.