A healthcare organization is migrating patient health records to a cloud environment. Due to the highly sensitive nature of the data and stringent regulatory requirements (e.g., HIPAA), they need to ensure that the underlying infrastructure is isolated and dedicated to their use, without sharing physical hardware resources with other tenants. Which cloud characteristic is MOST critical for this requirement?
- ABroad network access
- BOn-demand self-service
- CResource pooling
- DMeasured service
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Resource pooling
Resource pooling, while generally implying sharing, in this context refers to the provider's ability to pool resources and allocate them. The critical aspect for this question is the *isolation* and *dedication* of physical resources, which directly contradicts the general concept of multi-tenancy often associated with resource pooling. The best answer implicitly states that the resource pooling model must allow for dedicated physical allocation, which is a nuance of how resources are pooled and then provisioned to ensure isolation.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Broad network access refers to accessibility over a network, not physical resource isolation.
- B. On-demand self-service relates to user interaction, not physical isolation.
- D. Measured service is about billing and usage tracking, not hardware dedication.
NIST Cloud Characteristics
The essential features that define a cloud computing environment, as outlined by NIST.
- On-demand self-service: Users can provision resources without human interaction.
- Broad network access: Services are available over the network via standard mechanisms.
- Resource pooling: Provider's computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers.
- Rapid elasticity: Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned and released.
- Measured service: Resource usage is monitored, controlled, and reported.
Memory trick: On-demand, Broad, Pooled, Elastic, Measured: Every cloud has these features.