Computer Science
Grade 11
20 min
Cloud Architecture
Cloud Architecture
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1
Introduction & Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
Define cloud architecture and its core components.
Differentiate between vertical and horizontal scaling and identify use cases for each.
Explain the role of a load balancer in a distributed system.
Design a basic, high-level cloud architecture for a simple web application.
Analyze an architecture diagram to identify potential single points of failure.
Compare and contrast monolithic and microservices architectural styles.
Ever wonder how Netflix can stream movies to millions of people at the same time without crashing? 🤔 It's not magic, it's a masterclass in Cloud Architecture!
This lesson is your blueprint to understanding how massive, global applications are built. We'll explore the fundamental principles and components that allow clou...
2
Key Concepts & Vocabulary
TermDefinitionExample
Virtual Machine (VM)A complete emulation of a physical computer, including its own operating system, running on top of a host machine. It provides strong isolation between applications.Running a Linux operating system inside a window on your Windows laptop using software like VirtualBox. In the cloud, a provider like AWS runs thousands of these 'virtual computers' on their massive physical servers.
ContainerA lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run it: code, runtime, system tools, and libraries. Containers share the host system's OS kernel, making them faster and more efficient than VMs.A Docker container for a Python web application. It packages the Python interpreter, all necessary libraries (lik...
3
Core Syntax & Patterns
The Horizontal Scaling Pattern
Instead of increasing the resources of a single server (vertical scaling), add more identical, smaller servers to a pool to handle increased load.
Use this pattern when you need high availability and elasticity. It's more resilient because the failure of one server doesn't take down the whole system. It's the standard for modern web applications as it allows for 'auto-scaling'—automatically adding or removing servers based on traffic.
The Decoupling with Queues Pattern
Component A -> Message Queue -> Component B
When one component needs to send a task to another but doesn't need an immediate response, use a message queue as a buffer. Component A places a 'job message' in the queue, and Component B p...
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Challenging
Consider the 'Decoupling with Queues Pattern' (Component A -> Message Queue -> Component B). If Component B (the processor) fails and is offline for an hour, what is the state of the system and the primary benefit of the queue in this scenario?
A.The whole system fails; Component A cannot accept new requests because Component B is down.
B.Component A continues to accept requests and add messages to the queue, which acts as a buffer. The system shows durability.
C.The message queue deletes all incoming messages until Component B is back online to prevent overflow.
D.Component A automatically scales up to handle Component B's work, violating the single responsibility principle.
Challenging
An application is being re-architected from a monolith to microservices. The team creates a 'User' service and an 'Order' service, each with its own separate database. What is a major new data management challenge this introduces compared to the monolithic design?
A.It becomes impossible to store user data and order data.
B.The total amount of data that can be stored is significantly reduced.
C.Performing queries or transactions that span both user and order data (e.g., getting all orders for a user) becomes much more complex.
D.Database performance for each individual service will be worse than the single monolithic database.
Challenging
An architecture has a primary database in AZ-1 and a read-replica in AZ-2. The web servers are in an auto-scaling group across both AZs. If AZ-1 experiences a total failure, what critical step must be taken to restore full functionality to the application?
A.The web servers in AZ-2 will automatically start writing to the read-replica.
B.The read-replica in AZ-2 must be 'promoted' to become the new primary database, and the application must be reconfigured to write to it.
C.new primary database must be manually launched in AZ-2 from a backup.
D.The application will function in a read-only mode until AZ-1 is restored.
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