QUESTION 1

1.    You expect increased traffic to your e-commerce application during the holidays, and then expect that traffic will return to regular levels. Being able to support this change is an example of which cloud concept?

A: Operating expenses

B: Elasticity

C: Design for failure

D: Well-Architected Framework

Explanations:

A: Operating expenses. Operating expenses are the ongoing costs related to operating in the cloud, such as electricity, air-conditioning, staffing costs and so on.

B: Elasticity – CORRECT. Elasticity is the ability to adapt to workload changes (both up and down), usually in a dynamic, short-term way.

C: Design for failure. Designing for failure is a key design principle of the Reliability domain of the Well-Architected Framework. This deals with the ability of a workload to perform its intended function correctly and consistently when it’s expected to.

D: Well-Architected Framework. The Well-Architected Framework is a framework for designing and building your architecture in AWS, taking into best practices and the pros and cons of different options.

QUESTION 2

2.    You’ve designed your application to have multiple microservices that are independent from one another. This is an example of implementing which design principle?

A: Availability zones

B: Managed services

C: Loose coupling

D: Agility

Explanations:

A: Availability zones. Availability zones are distinct data centers within a geographic region.

B: Managed services. With an AWS managed service, AWS provisions the underlying infrastructure, handles patching, updates, etc.

C: Loose coupling – CORRECT. Loose coupling refers to breaking parts of a system into smaller, independent parts so that an application can better handle failures. A microservice architecture is one example of loose coupling.

D: Agility.  Agility is the ability to rapidly develop, test and launch applications to deliver business value.

QUESTION 3

3.    You want your application to be highly available, even in the event of an environmental disaster. What actions can you take to ensure high availability?

A: Deploy your application to multiple regions

B: Use economies of scale

C: Implement elasticity across compute and networking resources

D: Ensure operating expenses are kept to a minimum

Explanations:

A: Deploy your application to multiple regions – CORRECT. High availability is the ability of a system to continue functioning, even if some components fail. In the case of an environmental disaster (such as a flood, earthquake, fire, etc.), the best way to ensure your application can continue functioning is to have it deployed to a second geographic region (i.e., in a different part of the world). Upon failure of the first region, the application can fail over to the second region and continue operating.

B: Use economies of scale. Economies of scale refer to the ability of AWS to purchase things more cheaply than an individual organization can, thus passing on the savings to customers.

C: Implement elasticity across compute and networking resources. Elasticity is the ability to adapt to workload changes (both up and down), usually in a dynamic, short-term way. In the event of an environmental disaster, it is true that you may need to spin up/down resources, but the important point here is that those resources would need to be in a different region than where the disaster occurred.

D: Ensure operating expenses are kept to a minimum. Operating expenses are the ongoing costs related to operating in the cloud, such as electricity, air-conditioning, staffing costs and so on.

QUESTION 4

4.    A company needs to reduce labor costs in their IT department due to organizational restructuring. What is one way you can reduce costs with AWS?

A: By increasing capital expenses and reducing operating expenses

B: By managing total cost of ownership

C: By integrating with credit card systems

D: By using managed services

Explanations:

A: By increasing capital expenses and reducing operating expenses. Capital expenses are up-front costs, such as real estate, servers, routers, cables, etc. Operating expenses are the ongoing costs related to operating in the cloud, such as electricity, air-conditioning, staffing costs and so on. AWS generally reduces both of these costs.

B: By managing total cost of ownership. Total cost of ownership (TCO) includes capital (up-front) expenses plus operating (ongoing) expenses. AWS generally reduces TCO overall, but this answer is a distractor due to the wording. “Managing” total cost of ownership is not how you reduce costs in AWS.

C: By integrating with credit card systems. One way to reduce costs in AWS is by reducing some of the costs/burdens related to Compliance (one example is for the Payment Card Industry or PCI). Because AWS holds service-provider level compliance for PCI (and many other organizations), this can reduce some of the costs associated with getting that certification yourself. However, this answer is a distractor, as “integrating with credit card systems” is not the same as being PCI compliant.

D: By using managed services – CORRECT. With an AWS managed service, AWS provisions the underlying infrastructure, handles patching, updates, etc. As a customer, you simply use the service (like a database, for example). Because you don’t need your own staff to do the underlying work, this is one way you can reduce your labor costs.

QUESTION 5

5.    Which pillar of the Well-Architected Framework focuses on the ability to automatically recover from failures?

A: Reliability

B: Performance Efficiency

C: Sustainability

D: Cost Optimization

Explanations:

A: Reliability – CORRECT. Being able to automatically recover from failures is a key principle of the Reliability pillar of the Well-Architected Framework.

B: Performance Efficiency. The Performance Efficiency pillar of the Well-Architected Framework includes the ability to use computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements, and to maintain that efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.

C: Sustainability. The Sustainability pillar of the Well-Architected Framework focuses on environmental impacts, especially energy consumption and efficiency.

D: Cost Optimization. The Cost Optimization pillar of the Well-Architected Framework includes the ability to run systems to deliver business value at the lowest price point.

QUESTION 6

6.    Which pillar of the Well-Architected Framework refers to “operations as code”?

A: Sustainability

B: Operational Excellence

C: Security

D: Performance Efficiency

Explanations:

A: Sustainability. The Sustainability pillar of the Well-Architected Framework focuses on environmental impacts, especially energy consumption and efficiency.

B: Operational Excellence – CORRECT. The Operational Excellence pillar of the Well-Architected Framework includes a design principle for performing operations as code. This means you define your infrastructure and applications as code that you can run repeatedly and consistently (rather than manually setting them up each time and leaving room for human errors and deviations).

C: Security. The Security pillar of the Well-Architected Framework encompasses the ability to protect data, systems, and assets to take advantage of cloud technologies to improve your security.

D: Performance Efficiency. The Performance Efficiency pillar of the Well-Architected Framework includes the ability to use computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements, and to maintain that efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.