(ISC)2 Certified in Cybersecurity Practice Exam

Which of the following defines the physical infrastructure in a cloud environment?

1. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

2. Software as a Service (SaaS)

3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

4. Network as a Service (NaaS)

The correct answer is: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) defines the physical infrastructure in a cloud environment because it provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. IaaS encompasses the fundamental building blocks of cloud IT, including physical servers, storage, networking, and data center space, all managed by the service provider. This means that organizations can rent the hardware rather than investing in their own physical infrastructure, thus allowing for scalability and flexibility. With IaaS, users are able to manage operating systems, applications, and middleware, while the service provider handles the physical resources. This clear division of responsibilities allows businesses to focus on their applications and workloads without the burden of maintaining the underlying hardware. In contrast, the other choices represent different layers of cloud services that build on top of the physical infrastructure. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is centered around the development and deployment of applications with tools and services that abstract the underlying hardware and operating system, while Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers fully functional applications over the internet, eliminating the need for users to manage anything beneath the application layer. Network as a Service (NaaS) focuses specifically on network resources, rather than the broader physical infrastructure provided by IaaS.