Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET) Practice Exam

Which component may be shared with other cloud tenants even when using IaaS?

1. Application

2. Runtime

3. Virtual machine (guest)

4. Physical machine (host)

The correct answer is: Physical machine (host)

In an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, the physical machine (host) is the foundational hardware layer that supports multiple virtual machines (VMs) created by different tenants using the service. IaaS providers utilize virtualization technologies to partition a single physical machine into several isolated virtual environments for different users or tenants. This means that the physical machine, equipped with CPU, memory, and storage resources, can be shared among various clients, with each client having its dedicated virtual machines running separately on that hardware. This sharing of the physical host is a fundamental characteristic of cloud computing, specifically in IaaS. It allows cloud providers to optimize resource utilization and provide scalable services to multiple customers simultaneously. Each tenant’s virtual machines operate in a logically isolated environment, but they still rely on the same physical infrastructure. In contrast, aspects like the application and runtime layers are typically allocated per tenant and designed to operate independently, further maintaining the segregation and security benefits of cloud services.