Pass the Amazon Web Services AWS Certified Foundational CLF-C02 Questions and answers with CertsForce

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) provides a simple, scalable, fully managed elastic NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. It is built to scale on demand to petabytes without disrupting applications, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, eliminating the need to provision and manage capacity to accommodate growth. Amazon EFS offers two storage classes: the Standard storage class, and the Infrequent Access storage class (EFS IA). EFS IA provides price/performance that is cost-optimized for files not accessed every day. Amazon EFS encrypts data at rest and in transit, and supports direct access over the internet4.

AWS Outposts is a service that delivers AWS infrastructure and services to virtually any on-premises or edge location for a truly consistent hybrid experience. AWS Outposts allows you to extend and run native AWS services on premises, and is available in a variety of form factors, from 1U and 2U Outposts servers to 42U Outposts racks, and multiple rack deployments. With AWS Outposts, you can run some AWS services locally and connect to a broad range of services available in the local AWS Region. Run applications and workloads on premises using familiarAWS services, tools, and APIs2. AWS Outposts is the only AWS service that supports a hybridarchitecture that gives users the ability to extend AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to data centers, co-location environments, or on-premises facilities. References: On-Premises Infrastructure - AWS Outposts Family

The correct answers are B and C because they are advantages of the AWS Cloud. High economies of scale means that AWS can achieve lower variable costs than customers can get on their own. Launch globally in minutes means that AWS has a global infrastructure that allows customers to deploy their applications and data across multiple regions and availability zones. The other options are incorrect because they are not advantages of the AWS Cloud. Trade variable expenses for capital expenses means that customers have to invest heavily in data centers and servers before they know how they will use them. Focus on managing hardware infrastructure means that customers have to spend time and money on maintaining and upgrading their physical resources. Overprovision to ensure capacity means that customers have to pay for more resources than they actually need to avoid performance issues. Reference: What is Cloud Computing?

 Global reach is the benefit of AWS Cloud computing that provides lower latency between users and applications. Global reach means that AWS customers can deploy their applications and data in multiple regions around the world, and deliver them to users with high performance and availability. AWS has the largest global infrastructure of any cloud provider, with 25 geographic regions and 81 Availability Zones, as well as 216 Points of Presence in 84 cities across 42 countries. Customers can choose the optimal locations for their applications and data based on their business requirements, such as compliance, data sovereignty, and customer proximity. Agility, economies of scale, and pay-as-you-go pricing are other benefits of AWS Cloud computing, but they do not directly provide lower latency between users and applications. Agility means that AWS customers can quickly and easily provision and scale up or down AWS resources as needed, without upfront costs or long-term commitments. Economies of scale means that AWS customers can benefit from the lower costs and higher efficiency that AWS achieves by operating at a massive scale and passing the savings to the customers. Pay-as-you-go pricing means that AWS customers only pay for the AWS resources they use, without any upfront costs or long-term contracts.

Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) is the AWS service or feature that is used to send both text and email messages from distributed applications. Amazon SNS is a fully managed pub/sub messaging service that enables the user to send messages to multiple subscribers or endpoints, such as email addresses, phone numbers, HTTP endpoints, AWS Lambda functions, and more. Amazon SNS can be used to send notifications, alerts, confirmations, and reminders from applications to users or other applications4.

The correct answer is C because Dedicated Hosts are Amazon EC2 instances that are required when a user wants to utilize their existing per-socket, per-core, or per-virtual machine software licenses for a Microsoft Windows server running on AWS. Dedicated Hosts are physical servers that are dedicated to a single customer. Dedicated Hosts allow customers to use their existing server-bound software licenses, such as Windows Server, SQL Server, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, subject to their license terms. The other options are incorrect because they are not Amazon EC2 instances that are required when a user wants to utilize their existing per-socket, per-core, or per-virtual machine software licenses for a Microsoft Windows server running on AWS. Spot Instances are spare Amazon EC2 instances that are available at up to 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices. Spot Instances are suitable for stateless, fault-tolerant, and flexible workloads that can recover from interruptions easily. Dedicated Instances are Amazon EC2 instances that run on hardware that is dedicated to a single customer, but not to a specific physical server. Dedicated Instances do not allow customers to use their existing server-bound software licenses. Reserved Instances are Amazon EC2 instances that are reserved for a specific period of time (one or three years) in exchange for a lower hourly rate. Reserved Instances are suitable for steady-state or predictable workloads that run for a long duration. Reserved Instances do not allow customers to use their existing server-bound software licenses. Reference: Dedicated Hosts, Amazon EC2 Instance Purchasing Options

 Physical and environmental controls are entirely the responsibility of AWS, according to the AWS shared responsibility model. The AWS shared responsibility model defines the division of responsibilities between AWS and the customer for security and compliance. AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, which includes the physical and environmental controls of the AWS global infrastructure, such as power, cooling, fire suppression, and physical access. The customer is responsible for the security in the cloud, which includes the configuration and management of the AWS resources and applications. For more information, see [AWS Shared Responsibility Model] and [AWS Cloud Security].

 AWS Trusted Advisor is the AWS service or tool that the company should use to identify areas for optimization. According to the AWS Trusted Advisor User Guide, “AWS Trusted Advisor is an online tool that provides you real time guidance to help you provision your resources following AWS best practices. AWS Trusted Advisor checks help optimize your AWS infrastructure, increase security and performance, reduce your overall costs, and monitor service limits.” Amazon QuickSight, AWS Organizations, and AWS Budgets are not designed to provide optimization recommendations for the current AWS environment.

Amazon CloudFront with Amazon S3 is a solution that allows you to provide static files securely to users from around the world. Amazon CloudFront is a fast content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to customers globally with low latency, high transfer speeds, all within a developer-friendly environment. Amazon S3 is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. You can use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere. You can also configure Amazon S3 to work with Amazon CloudFront to distribute your content to edge locations near your users for faster delivery and lower latency. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is a service that enables you to build custom applications that process or analyze streaming data for specialized needs. This option is not relevant for providing static files securely. Amazon EC2 instances with an Application Load Balancer is a solution that allows you to distribute incoming traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, in multiple Availability Zones. This option is suitable for dynamic web applications, but not necessary for static files. Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) is a service that provides a simple, scalable, fully managed elastic NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. This option is not relevant for providing static files securely.

The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a set of best practices and guidelines for designing and operating systems in the cloud. The framework consists of five pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. The operational excellence pillar focuses on the ability to run workloads effectively, gain insight into operations, and continuously improve supporting processes and procedures. Therefore, the correct answer is C. You can learn more about the AWS Well-Architected Framework and its pillars.

 AWS Enterprise Support is the AWS Support plan that includes an AWS concierge whom the company can ask for assistance. According to the AWS Support Plans page, AWS Enterprise Support provides "a dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM) who provides advocacy and guidance to help plan and build solutions using best practices, coordinate access to subject matter experts, and proactively keep your AWS environment operationally healthy."2 AWS Business Support, AWS Developer Support, and AWS Basic Support do not include a TAM or a concierge service.

AWS Organizationsis a service that helps users centrally manage and govern multiple AWS accounts. With AWS Organizations, a company can consolidate billing and receive a single bill for all AWS accounts under an organization, making it easier for the finance team to track costs.

Why other options are not suitable:

B. AWS Trusted Advisor: Provides real-time guidance to help optimize AWS resources, not for consolidated billing.

C. Cost Explorer: A tool for visualizing and managing AWS costs and usage, but it does not consolidate billing.

D. AWS Budgets: Allows setting custom budgets and alerts but does not consolidate billing across accounts.

The company should deploy the EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones to design a highly available application. Availability Zones are isolated locations within an AWS Region that are engineered to be fault-tolerant and operate independently of each other. By deploying the EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones, the company can ensure that their application can withstand the failure of an entire Availability Zone and continue to operate with minimal disruption. Deploying the EC2 instances across multiple edge locations, VPCs, or AWS accounts will not provide the same level of availability and fault tolerance as Availability Zones. Edge locations are part of the Amazon CloudFront service, which is a content delivery network (CDN) that caches and serves webcontent to users. VPCs are virtual networks that isolate the AWS resources within an AWS Region. AWS accounts are the primary units of ownership and access control for AWS resources12

One of the key advantages of cloud computing is the ability totrade fixed expenses (like data centers and physical servers) for variable expenses. With AWS, companies pay only for the compute power, storage, and other resources they use, rather than investing heavily in on-premises infrastructure upfront. This reduces capital expenditure and helps lower overall costs.

Why other options are not suitable:

A. Go global in minutes: Refers to the ability to quickly deploy applications around the world, but does not directly reduce upfront costs.

B. Increase speed and agility: Refers to the ability to quickly scale and deploy resources, but is not directly related to cost reduction.

C. Benefit from massive economies of scale: Refers to AWS's ability to lower costs by leveraging its scale, but the primary advantage for reducing upfront costs is moving from fixed to variable expenses.

Amazon RDS and Amazon EC2 are two AWS services that you can use to host and run a MySQL database. Amazon RDS is a service that makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. You can use Amazon RDS to launch a MySQL database instance and let Amazon RDS manage common database tasks such as backups, patching, scaling, and replication6. Amazon EC2 is a service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. You can use Amazon EC2 to launch a virtual server and install MySQL software on it. You have complete control over your database configuration, but you are responsible for managing and maintaining the database software and the underlying infrastructure7. Amazon DynamoDB is a key-value and document database that delivers single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. Amazon S3 is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. Amazon MQ is a managed message broker service for Apache ActiveMQ. None of these services can help you host and run a MySQL database.

 AWS Organizations is an account management service that enables you to consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an organization that you create and centrally manage. AWS Organizationsincludes consolidated billing and account management capabilities that enable you to better meet the budgetary, security, and compliance needs of your business1.

Understanding Availability Zones (AZs): An Availability Zone is a distinct location within an AWS region that is engineered to be isolated from failures in other AZs.

Characteristics of Availability Zones:

Data Centers: Each AZ consists of one or more discrete data centers with redundant power, networking, and connectivity.

High Availability: AZs are designed for high availability, providing low-latency network connections to other zones in the same region.

Fault Isolation: They provide fault isolation and are used to deploy applications and services to ensure high availability and reliability.

Use Cases for Availability Zones:

Multi-AZ Deployments: For services like RDS, deploying in multiple AZs ensures fault tolerance.

Disaster Recovery: Setting up resources in multiple AZs helps in quick recovery from failures.

Load Balancing: Distributing traffic across AZs using Elastic Load Balancing ensures optimal performance and availability.

AWS Global Infrastructure

Understanding AWS Regions and Availability Zones

 One of the cost efficiency principles related to the AWS Cloud is to right-size services based on capacity requirements. This means choosing the most appropriate type and size of AWS resources to meet the performance and scalability needs of the applications, while avoiding over-provisioning or under-provisioning. By right-sizing services, users can optimize the costs and benefits of using the AWS Cloud1

 AWS Config is a service that enables users to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of AWS resources. It continuously monitors and records the configuration changes of the resources and evaluates them against desired configurations and best practices. It also provides a detailed view of the resource configuration history and relationships, as well as compliance reports and notifications. AWS Config can help users maintain consistent and secure configurations, troubleshoot issues, and simplify compliance auditing. AWS Config OverviewAWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - aws.amazon.com

 AWS Pricing Calculator can be used to estimate costs before deployment. AWS Pricing Calculator is a tool that helps the user to compare the cost of AWS services for different use cases and configurations. The user can create estimates for various AWS services, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and more. The user can also adjust the parameters, such as region, instance type, storage size, and duration, to see how they affect the cost. AWS Pricing Calculator provides a detailed breakdown of the estimated cost, as well as a summary of the key drivers of the cost.