The Cloud and Collaboration Systems Practice Test

In cloud computing, which statement best distinguishes elasticity from scalability?

Elasticity is the ability to add resources ahead of demand; scalability is automatic scaling.

Elasticity is manual adjustment; scalability is real-time auto-scaling.

Elasticity guarantees read-after-write; scalability ensures high durability.

Elasticity automatically grows/shrinks resources with demand; scalability is the capacity to handle growth, often by adding resources.

Elasticity is the cloud’s automatic adjustment of resources in response to changing workload, expanding when demand rises and shrinking when it falls, all in real time. Scalability, meanwhile, is the system’s ability to grow to handle increased demand, typically by adding more resources or upgrading capacity, and it may or may not happen automatically depending on the design. The statement that best fits this distinction says elasticity automatically grows or shrinks resources with demand, while scalability describes the capacity to handle growth by provisioning additional resources. The other options mix in manual steps, pre-emptive provisioning, or confuse the terms with data durability, which isn’t what elasticity or scalability describe.