CompTIA Cloud+ Practice Test

Which term refers to the practice of allocating more resources than what is physically available?

1. Resource pooling

2. Overcommitment

3. Thick provisioning

4. Storage virtualization

The correct answer is: Overcommitment

The term that refers to the practice of allocating more resources than what is physically available is overcommitment. This concept is commonly utilized in virtualization environments where system administrators allocate more virtual CPU, memory, or storage to virtual machines than the physical hardware can support at any given time. Overcommitment allows for more efficient resource utilization, as it assumes that not all allocated resources will be used simultaneously. For example, if multiple virtual machines are running, it’s likely that they won’t all demand their maximum resource allocations at the same time. This ensures better performance and flexibility in resource allocation, especially in environments with fluctuating workloads. Resource pooling refers to a different concept where resources are aggregated together to serve multiple users, enhancing efficiency and scalability. Thick provisioning involves pre-allocating the entire amount of storage that a virtual machine will ever use, which contrasts with the overcommitment concept. Storage virtualization allows for abstracting the storage resources from the physical storage hardware, creating a layer where storage can be managed in a more flexible manner, but it does not deal with the practice of exceeding available resources directly.