220-1101 Question 373
Single answerInfrastructure as a service (IaaS)A small company needs to deploy a temporary test environment for a custom inventory application. The IT technician must provision servers quickly, choose the operating systems, and install the application manually, but the company does not want to purchase or maintain physical server hardware. Which cloud service model best meets these requirements?
- A
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- B
Software as a Service (SaaS)
- C
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- D
Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) because it allows an organization to rent compute, storage, and networking resources from a cloud provider while retaining control of the guest operating system and installed applications. This is a common real-world use case for temporary labs, test environments, and short-term projects. By contrast, SaaS is intended for consuming finished applications, PaaS is intended for application development on a managed platform, and DaaS is intended for hosted desktop sessions. This aligns with standard cloud service model definitions used by CompTIA and major cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, all of which describe IaaS as customer-managed operating systems and applications running on provider-managed infrastructure.
- A. Correct.
Correct. IaaS provides virtualized computing resources such as virtual machines, storage, and networking. In this scenario, the company wants control over the server operating systems and application installation while avoiding the cost and maintenance of physical hardware. That aligns directly with IaaS.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. SaaS delivers fully managed software applications to end users, typically through a browser or client app. The company in this scenario needs to provision servers and install its own custom inventory application, which is beyond the level of control SaaS provides.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. PaaS gives developers a managed platform for building and deploying applications without managing the underlying operating systems and infrastructure. This scenario specifically states that the technician needs to choose the operating systems and install the application manually, which points to more control than PaaS normally offers.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. DaaS provides hosted virtual desktops for end-user access. It is useful for delivering remote desktop environments, not for provisioning customizable application servers for a test environment.