About this previous year paper
Course: B.Tech (Mechanical / Computer Science Engineering)
Semester: V
Subject Code: KML051
Subject Title: Cloud Computing
Maximum Marks: 100 | Time: 3 Hours
Paper Structure:
Section A – Short answers: 20 marks
Section B – Descriptive: 30 marks
Sections C to 7 – Analytical / Application-based: 50 marks
SECTION A — Short Answer Questions (2 × 10 = 20 Marks)
Each question carries 2 marks and checks your core concepts.
Define Cloud Computing and list its key characteristics — on-demand service, scalability, elasticity, resource pooling, and measured service.
Elasticity and Cost Optimization: Elastic scaling up/down reduces over-provisioning and idle costs.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): Enables modular, interoperable cloud services.
REST (Representational State Transfer): A stateless web-service design using HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
Hypervisor: The software layer that virtualizes hardware to run multiple VMs.
Cloud Storage Advantages: Scalability, remote access, redundancy, pay-per-use.
Autoscaling: Automatic adjustment of resources based on load.
Monolithic vs Microservices: Single large codebase vs independent modules.
OpenStack: Open-source IaaS platform for private/public clouds.
Google App Engine: PaaS that lets developers deploy apps without managing infrastructure.
SECTION B — Descriptive Questions (10 × 3 = 30 Marks)
Attempt any three questions.
Parallel Computing: Explains how tasks are divided across processors to improve cloud performance and throughput.
CPU Virtualization: Allows multiple VMs to share one physical processor via time-sharing and hypervisor scheduling.
NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture: Defines five actors — Cloud Consumer, Provider, Broker, Auditor, Carrier.
Identity and Access Management (IAM): Controls user authentication and authorization to secure resources.
MapReduce in Hadoop: Framework that splits big data into map tasks (process) and reduce tasks (aggregate).
SECTION C — Analytical and Long Answer Questions (10 × 5 = 50 Marks)
Each numbered question (3 to 7) has two alternatives (a or b); attempt one from each.
Q3. On-Demand and Distributed Computing
(a) On-demand provisioning lets users allocate VMs or storage instantly, improving scalability.
(b) Distributed computing integrates networked resources for parallel processing. NIST lists five essential cloud characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.
Q4. Virtualization Concepts
(a) Full vs Para-Virtualization: Full emulates hardware completely; para-virtualization modifies the OS for efficiency.
(b) Virtualization in Disaster Recovery: Snapshots and VM replicas enable quick restoration and business continuity.
Q5. Cloud Models and Storage
(a) Public Cloud (shared infrastructure), Private Cloud (dedicated enterprise use), Hybrid Cloud (combination).
Choice depends on security, cost, and control needs.
(b) Amazon S3: Object-storage service offering durability, versioning, and lifecycle management for scalable secure data storage.
Q6. Security and Provisioning
(a) Security Standards: ISO 27001, CSA STAR, NIST SP 800-53, and PCI-DSS ensure data protection and compliance.
(b) Resource Provisioning: On-demand (instantly allocate resources) vs Reserved (advance commitment for discounted rates).
Q7. Big Data and Virtualization Tools
(a) Hadoop: Open-source framework for distributed storage (HDFS) and parallel processing (MapReduce).
(b) VirtualBox: Cross-platform virtualization tool for creating and managing VMs in testing or deployment.
Key Concepts Covered
Cloud basics and NIST model Virtualization and Hypervisors
Parallel and Distributed Computing Cloud Service Models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)
Security & IAM Autoscaling and Provisioning
Amazon S3 and OpenStack Hadoop ecosystem and VirtualBox