Lesson 2 Topic D - Report Financial Expenditures

2.1 Given a scenario, use appropriate cloud assessments 3.3 Given a scenario, review and report on the financial expenditures related to cloud resources

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Compute Costs)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What do compute costs typically include in cloud services?

A: Processor and RAM usage, plus OS licensing costs (e.g., Windows vs. Linux).

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Storage Costs)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What factors influence storage costs in the cloud?

A: The amount and type of storage, especially based on access speed requirements.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Network Costs)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What are common components of cloud network costs?

A: Hardware, software, maintenance, and traffic volume or rack usage.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Other Utilities)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What utility costs are factored into cloud pricing?

A: Power, cooling, and Internet connectivity for data center operations.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Reporting Tools)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What reporting capabilities are typically provided by cloud service provider dashboards?

A: Billing breakdowns by compute, storage, network usage, and virtual machine instances.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Instance Types)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What is a virtual machine instance in cloud computing?

A: A hardware profile of compute, storage, and network resources hosted by a CSP.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Reserved Instance)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What is a reserved instance?

A: A virtual machine instance committed to for 1–3 years, offering discounted pricing for predictable workloads.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Spot Instance)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What is a spot instance?

A: A discounted virtual machine instance offered when unused capacity is available, ideal for flexible workloads.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (License Types)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What types of licenses may be required for cloud virtual machine instances?

A: Operating system licenses such as Microsoft Windows Server or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (License-Free OS)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What is an example of a cloud-compatible operating system that does not require license management?

A: Ubuntu Linux.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (License Quantity Management)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: Why is it important to track license quantities in cloud environments?

A: Because elastic scaling can cause rapid changes in the number of active licenses and users.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (License Costs & Strategy)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: How can organizations categorize license costs in cloud environments?

A: As either CapEx (depreciated over time) or OpEx, depending on their accounting strategy.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (License Types)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

A: A subscription-based commercial Linux distribution designed for enterprise environments, offering stability, support, and security.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Chargebacks)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What is a chargeback in cloud billing?

A: A method of billing business units based on their actual IT resource consumption.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Traditional vs. Chargeback)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: How do chargebacks improve over traditional IT budgeting?

A: They allow visibility into which departments consume which resources, instead of using a single lump-sum budget.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Resource Tagging)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What is resource tagging in cloud environments?

A: The process of labeling resources with info like department, project, or owner to track usage and costs.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Tagging Benefits)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What are two key benefits of resource tagging?

A: It enables accurate chargebacks and helps identify unused services for potential retirement.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Maintenance: Cloud vs. On-Prem)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: How does cloud computing impact hardware maintenance?

A: It offloads maintenance tasks like firmware updates and hardware replacement to the cloud provider.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Hardware Lifecycle Management)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: What is the purpose of hardware lifecycle management?

A: To track infrastructure performance, depreciation, and timing for upgrades or replacement.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Maintenance Costs: OpEx)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: How are maintenance costs categorized in cloud and on-prem environments?

A: As operating expenditures (OpEx) in both, though cloud costs are usually more predictable.

🟦 Objective 3.3 – Cloud Expenditures (Maintenance & Chargebacks)
📘 Lesson 2, Topic D

Q: How can maintenance and license costs be managed across departments?

A: Through chargebacks based on usage, or included in cloud subscription fees.