Question #1287
A company dynamically scales its IT resources based on current demand, only incurring costs for the resources consumed each hour. Which cloud computing advantage does this demonstrate?
Eliminate upfront hardware maintenance costs
Rapidly deploy applications worldwide
Deploy resources globally within minutes
Replace capital expenses with operational expenses
Explanation
The correct answer is D. Replace capital expenses with operational expenses.
Why D is correct:
- Cloud computing allows organizations to avoid large upfront capital expenditures (CapEx) for hardware by instead paying for resources as they are consumed (operational expenses, or OpEx). The question explicitly states the company 'only incur[s] costs for the resources consumed each hour,' which directly aligns with the OpEx model.
Why other options are incorrect:
- A: While cloud computing reduces upfront hardware costs, the question emphasizes hourly consumption costs, which relate to OpEx, not just eliminating maintenance.
- B and C: These refer to scalability and global deployment speed, which are separate cloud benefits but not tied to the cost structure described in the question.
Key Points:
- Pay-as-you-go pricing is a core cloud advantage, enabling cost optimization by converting CapEx (e.g., purchasing servers) into OpEx (e.g., hourly EC2 instance costs).
- Elasticity (dynamic scaling) supports this model by allowing resources to scale with demand, ensuring costs align with actual usage.
Answer
The correct answer is: D