Amazon, Microsoft or a Cloud? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Microsoft Azure

Cosmos DB is a Microsoft Azure product that provides users with a database service that can deal with data sources that aren't considered "structured" - that is, "unstructured" or "semi-structured". Structured data is the realm of defined, regulated tables containing rows and columns of data that can be administrated and interrogated using a language such as SQL (Structured Querying Language). Cosmos DB allows NoSQL programming techniques to be utilised to explore different structures, often in real or near-real time.

Answer: Microsoft Azure

Logic Apps is Microsoft's equivalent to Power Automate within its cloud-based Azure environment. Logic Apps can be simplistically described as a service that allows the user to automate a set of tasks at specified time intervals or when the criteria permits a process to be triggered.

This could be used to automate a wide variety of processes, from sending emails to orchestrating changes to customer details in a database.

Answer: Microsoft Azure

Whilst it sounds like something from a 1930s horror film, Blob Storage is simply a cloud-based service used to store a wide variety of file types, from text to json, in objects called "containers". It is often the initial dumping ground for files before processes are developed that make use of the data and information that the files contain. It is one of the services that can quickly turn into a "data swamp" rather than a "data lake" if you are not careful!

Blob stands for "binary large object".

Answer: Microsoft Azure

Stream Analytics is a rather impressive Microsoft Azure service that can handle large volumes of data in real time to update databases and create "live" dashboards. The range of accepted data sources is broad and includes sensors on vehicles (telemetry) and customer transactions on a website. Large volumes really does mean large - millions of events per second!

Answer: Amazon Web Services

Microsoft and Amazon furiously compete with each other in an effort to dominate the cloud computing industry. There are often services that can only be found on one of the two platforms but there are often "bread and butter" services that you'd expect to see from any provider. One such example is file storage capability with Amazon S3 being akin to Azure Blob Storage (Microsoft). S3 is an attempt at implementing a catchy name for boring functionality; it stands for Simple Storage Service (SSS -> S3).

Answer: Amazon Web Services

Amazon's cloud-based data warehousing service, Redshift, allows users to input data and output insights. The service ultimately has Structured Querying Language (SQL) at its heart but it seeks to move beyond that, using machine learning (ML) and proprietary capability to reduce the burden of the traditional "extract, transform, load" (ETL) process. ETL could be a quiz in itself but I am not sure that I should inflict such a travesty upon FunTrivia! Suffice to say it is the building of "pipelines" or automated processes to take raw data and - hopefully - make it useful.

Answer: Amazon Web Services

Amazon Athena - sharing its name with the Greek goddess of wisdom - is an analytics service that ticks a lot of 21st century boxes including being "serverless" and capable of handling "big data" (petabytes). Despite the jargon, it seeks to achieve the same as nearly every other analytical process, namely take some raw data, tidy it up and do something with it!

Answer: Amazon Web Services

Perhaps one of the better product names within the Amazon Web Services catalogue is Braket, which is the go-to functionality for quantum computation. It takes its name from the notation used in quantum mechanics to describe quantum states, bra-ket or Dirac notation. Amazon Braket is not an everyday piece of kit and it seeks to allow those inclined to build, test and run algorithms to do so by granting access to simulators and quantum computers.

Answer: Thing in the Sky!

Cumulonimbus take a rather dramatic form; one such example is the cumulonimbus incus - often referred to as the "anvil" (just like the bone of the inner ear) - whose presence usually portends rather difficult weather ahead. The "anvil" can give rise to anything from heavy rain to thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Answer: Thing in the Sky!

Cumulus is a family of clouds - often creating cotton wool formations littered across the blue sky - that includes the cumulus humilis. The cumulus humilis typically portends "fair weather", for a while at least, but can give rise in time to the cumulus congestus cloud which is somewhat more menacing!

Answer: Thing in the Sky!

Cirrus clouds are of the "wispy" variety with the cirrus fibratus being a very common example seen throughout the day. Cirrus fibratus is also known as "mares' tails" and can indicate a warm front is on its way.

Answer: Thing in the Sky!

Stratus is a low-lying type of cloud that is often responsible for those hazy days that are all too familiar in South Wales! The fantastically-named stratus nebulosus is one of the biggest culprits for creating those low-energy grey days. No false friends here, "nebulosus" relates to "nebulous" which references the fact that there is no discernible detail in this particular cloud formation.