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Difficulty: MediumHigh Availability, Scalability, and Elasticity

A digital news outlet hosts a web application on Azure. The application experiences sudden, unpredictable surges in reader traffic whenever a major breaking story is published. The system is configured to automatically deploy additional virtual machine instances to handle the spikes, and then remove them once traffic returns to normal baseline levels. Which cloud characteristic does this automatic adjustment of resources directly demonstrate?

  1. A
    Scalability
  2. B
    High Availability
  3. ElasticityAnswer
  4. D
    Disaster Recovery

Answer

Elasticity
The correct answer is elasticity because the scenario describes a system that automatically adds resource capacity (virtual machines) to handle traffic spikes and then automatically reduces it when demand decreases. This dynamic, automated scaling in response to real-time workload changes is the definition of cloud elasticity.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the scenario details regarding workload demand.
The web application experiences sudden, unpredictable spikes in traffic followed by a return to normal baseline levels.
Identifying the nature of the demand (unpredictable, short-lived spikes) is key to determining which cloud capability is required.
2
Examine the resource adjustment behavior implemented.
The platform automatically deploys more virtual machine instances during spikes and automatically removes them when demand drops.
This automated, bi-directional scaling behavior aligns with the definition of elasticity.
3
Compare the behavior against the definition of standard cloud characteristics.
Elasticity represents the dynamic, automated scaling of resources to match current demand, distinguishing it from static or manual scalability, high availability, and disaster recovery.
Ensures the selected term matches the precise cloud characteristic described.

Key Concept

Cloud elasticity is the ability of a system to dynamically adjust its resource capacity by automatically scaling up or down in response to fluctuating workloads.
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Topics

High Availability, Scalability, and Elasticity

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