IBM Cloud Technical Advocate flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Shared responsibility model

IBM secures the physical and virtualization layer (security of the cloud); the customer secures workloads, data, identities, and configurations (security in the cloud). Responsibilities shift by service model.

Elasticity vs scalability

Scalability is the capacity to grow resources to meet higher demand; elasticity is automatic, rapid scale-out and scale-in, including releasing capacity when demand falls.

NIST essential characteristics

On-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service define cloud computing under the NIST model.

CapEx versus OpEx

Capital expenditure buys fixed long-lived assets upfront; operational expenditure pays for consumption over time, converting a large upfront investment into a variable monthly cloud bill.

Cloud total cost of ownership

TCO compares on-premises hardware refresh, facilities, power, and staff against cloud consumption charges plus migration and ongoing operations; per-transaction unit cost is the comparable metric.

Resource group

Logical container in an IBM Cloud account that groups resource instances for access control and usage tracking; every IAM-enabled resource belongs to exactly one resource group.

Multi-zone region

IBM Cloud region containing three availability zones, each with independent power and network; spreading instances across zones lets a workload survive a single-zone failure.

Virtual Server Instance

IBM Cloud VPC gen2 compute that runs a profile-selected virtual machine with attached block storage, placed in one subnet inside one zone.

Code Engine

IBM Cloud serverless platform for containers, applications, and batch jobs; it scales to zero and bills only for resources consumed while a workload runs.

Power Virtual Server

IBM Cloud compute that runs AIX, IBM i, or Linux on Power processors inside a PowerVS workspace, used to migrate existing Power workloads.

Bare metal server

Single-tenant physical server in IBM Cloud VPC with no hypervisor layer, giving predictable performance for high-I/O and licensing-sensitive workloads.

Cloud Object Storage classes

IBM Cloud Object Storage offers Standard, Smart Tier, Vault, and Cold Vault classes plus Cross Region, Regional, and Single Data Center bucket resilience choices.

Transit Gateway

IBM Cloud network service that connects VPCs, classic infrastructure, and Direct Link attachments through a single private routing hub, avoiding public network exposure between them.

Direct Link

Dedicated private connectivity between an on-premises network and IBM Cloud, offered as Direct Link Dedicated over fiber or Direct Link Connect through a service provider.

VPC block storage tiers

IBM Cloud VPC block storage profiles are priced by IOPS per GB (3, 5, or 10 IOPS/GB, plus custom); capacity and IOPS scale together on fixed tiers.

Db2 on Cloud

Fully managed IBM Db2 relational database service with high availability options; suited to transactional SQL workloads that need enterprise-grade compatibility and low administrative overhead.

IBM Cloudant

Managed JSON document database built on CouchDB, offering HTTP APIs, replication, and eventual consistency for web and mobile applications that need schema flexibility.

IAM access group

A collection of users and service IDs to which IAM access policies are assigned, letting administrators grant permissions once and manage membership instead of editing individual policies.

Key Protect

IBM Cloud key management service that generates and stores root keys used to wrap data encryption keys for IBM Cloud services, giving customer-managed encryption without dedicated hardware.

Hyper Protect Crypto Services

IBM Cloud service providing FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certified hardware security modules, enabling keep-your-own-key encryption and dedicated single-tenant key management for regulated workloads.

VPC security group versus ACL

Security groups are stateful allow rules attached to virtual server instances; network ACLs are stateless, ordered allow and deny rules attached to subnets.

App ID

IBM Cloud identity broker that adds authentication to applications using OIDC and OAuth 2.0 with social, SAML, or cloud directory identity providers.

watsonx.ai

IBM studio for generative AI that provides foundation model access, a prompt lab, tuning, and deployment of models into applications through APIs.

watsonx.governance

IBM toolset for directing, managing, and monitoring AI models against risk and regulatory requirements, producing model factsheets and audit evidence across the model lifecycle.

watsonx.data

Open lakehouse built on Presto and Iceberg that queries data held in object storage and external databases without copying it into a single warehouse.

Retrieval-augmented generation

Pattern in which relevant documents are retrieved from a vector store and inserted into the prompt so a foundation model answers with grounded, current, organization-specific context.

Strangler fig modernization

Incremental approach that routes traffic through a facade and replaces legacy application capabilities with new services one at a time until the original system can be retired.

Resource tagging

Key-value labels attached to IBM Cloud resources for cost allocation, automation, and access scope; tag-based IAM policies grant access to every resource carrying a given tag.

Budget alert

Account setting that sends email notification when spending reaches a defined percentage of a monthly budget for the account or a resource group; it warns but does not block provisioning.

Premium support plan

IBM Cloud support tier that adds a designated Technical Account Manager, proactive guidance, and the fastest response-time commitments available above the Advanced plan.

Enterprise account

IBM Cloud account structure that groups multiple accounts under account groups, giving consolidated billing, centralized IAM, and governance across an organization's environments.

Reserved instance pricing

Discounted IBM Cloud commitment for a fixed term, typically one or three years, exchanging a longer commitment for lower hourly rates than pay-as-you-go.