About this previous year paper
CLOUD COMPUTING (KCS713)
Time: 3 Hours | Maximum Marks: 100
SECTION A (10 × 2 = 20 Marks)
(Attempt all questions in brief)
1(a) Define cloud computing and trace its evolution.
Cloud computing is a model that provides on-demand access to shared computing resources such as servers, storage, networks, and applications over the internet with minimal management effort.
Its evolution began from mainframes, moved to client-server systems, then virtualization, and finally to modern public, private, and hybrid clouds.
1(b) Challenges faced during the evolution of cloud computing.
Major challenges included lack of standardization, security and privacy concerns, data migration complexity, vendor lock-in, bandwidth limitations, and trust in third-party providers.
1(c) Explain virtualization.
Virtualization is a technology that allows multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical machine by abstracting hardware resources using a hypervisor.
1(d) Compare implementation levels of virtualization.
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Hardware-level | Uses hypervisor (VMware, Xen) |
| OS-level | Containers share same OS |
| Application-level | Apps run in isolated environments |
1(e) Features and benefits of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.
IaaS: Infrastructure control, scalability, reduced hardware cost
PaaS: Faster development, platform management handled by provider
SaaS: Ready-to-use software, no installation, cost-effective
1(f) Storage-as-a-Service.
It provides scalable, on-demand storage over the cloud where users pay only for what they use. Examples include Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage.
1(g) Identity and Access Management (IAM).
IAM controls user authentication and authorization using roles, policies, and permissions to ensure secure access to cloud resources.
1(h) Encryption techniques for securing cloud resources.
Encryption techniques include data-at-rest encryption, data-in-transit encryption, symmetric encryption (AES), and asymmetric encryption (RSA).
1(i) Cloud federation.
Cloud federation is the interconnection of multiple cloud providers that allows sharing of resources, data, and services across different clouds.
1(j) Role of federated services and applications.
Federated services enable interoperability, scalability, load balancing, cost optimization, and seamless service delivery across multiple cloud platforms.
SECTION B (Attempt any THREE) (3 × 10 = 30 Marks)
2(a) Parallel computing principles & workload balancing (10,000 tasks)
Parallel computing divides tasks among multiple nodes to execute simultaneously.
If:
Total tasks = 10,000 Number of nodes = 10
Workload per node: Tasks per node=1000010=1000\text{Tasks per node} = \frac{10000}{10} = 1000Tasks per node=1010000=1000
Balanced workload improves performance and reduces execution time.
2(b) Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) & scalability
SOA structures applications as reusable services.
It improves scalability by allowing independent scaling of services based on demand.
2(c) Architectural challenges & performance–security trade-off
Higher encryption improves security but increases processing time.
Example:
Without encryption: response time = 100 ms With encryption: response time = 130 ms
Trade-off = 30 ms overhead for better security
2(d) Inter-cloud resource management simulation
During peak demand, Cloud A borrows resources from Cloud B.
Example:
Required VMs = 500 Cloud A capacity = 350
Cloud B provides = 150 This prevents downtime and ensures SLA compliance.
2(e) Cloud in disaster recovery & downtime cost
Cloud enables fast backup, replication, and failover.
If: Downtime = 2 hours
Loss per hour = ₹50,000 Downtime cost = ₹100,000
SECTION C (Attempt any ONE) (10 Marks)
3(a) Traditional IT vs Cloud provisioning (cost model)
| Traditional IT | Cloud |
|---|---|
| High upfront cost | Pay-as-you-go |
| Fixed capacity | Elastic |
| Maintenance overhead | Provider managed |
Example: Traditional cost/year = ₹12,00,000
Cloud cost/year = ₹6,00,000 Savings = ₹6,00,000
3(b) Elasticity model (10,000 → 1,000,000 users)
Elasticity allows automatic scaling.
If: 10,000 users need 10 servers
1,000,000 users need 1000 servers Cloud scales resources dynamically, preventing service failure.