GCP-CLOUD-ARCHITECT practice question 4 of 10

A global media company is launching a new web application. The application backend is hosted on Compute Engine in us-central1 and serves both static…

Domain Designing and planning a cloud solution architecture

A global media company is launching a new web application. The application backend is hosted on Compute Engine in us-central1 and serves both static assets (images, CSS, and JavaScript) and dynamic, user-specific content from a Cloud SQL database in the same region. Early user feedback from Europe and Asia indicates significant page load delays due to slow loading static content. You need to design a solution that minimizes latency for all global users accessing the static content. What should you do? Choose 2 answers.

Answer options

A: Create Cloud SQL read replicas in regions in Europe and Asia, and direct all database read traffic from those continents to their local replica.

B: Use a regional external Network Load Balancer in us-central1 to better distribute the incoming global traffic.

C: Enable Cloud CDN for the backend service that serves the static assets, and configure it as part of a global external HTTP(S) Load Balancer. Correct answer

D: Deploy the application frontend service to Compute Engine managed instance groups in regions in Europe and Asia. Use a global external HTTP(S) Load Balancer to route user traffic to the nearest region. Correct answer

Correct Answer:

C. Enable Cloud CDN for the backend service that serves the static assets, and configure it as part of a global external HTTP(S) Load Balancer.; D. Deploy the application frontend service to Compute Engine managed instance groups in regions in Europe and Asia. Use a global external HTTP(S) Load Balancer to route user traffic to the nearest region.

Explanation

The primary issue is high latency for static content for users in Europe and Asia, caused by the distance to the us-central1 backend. Enabling Cloud CDN (C) caches static assets at Google's globally distributed edge locations, serving content from a point-of-presence near the user. Deploying the frontend to regional managed instance groups (D) in Europe and Asia and using a global load balancer also moves the application closer to the users. Both solutions effectively reduce round-trip time and latency for static content delivery to a global audience.

Why Incorrect

A. Cloud SQL read replicas would improve database read performance for dynamic content, not the slow-loading static content identified in the problem.
B. A regional Network Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 and is confined to a single region; it cannot provide global routing or content caching.

References

1. Google Cloud Documentation, "Cloud CDN > Docs > Overview". It states, "Cloud CDN (Content Delivery Network) uses Google's global edge network to serve content closer to users, which accelerates your websites and applications."

2. Google Cloud Documentation, "Load Balancing > Docs > Load Balancer types > Choosing a load balancer". This document highlights that the Global External HTTP(S) Load Balancer is "for global web applications" and supports Cloud CDN.

3. Google Cloud Documentation, "Compute Engine > Docs > Instance groups > Creating groups of managed instances". Deploying MIGs in multiple regions is a standard pattern for reducing latency for global users.

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