CISSP Study Plan – Day 17 of 55 | Cloud Characteristics
- Luke Ahmed
- Sep 22
- 2 min read
"All that study you did about cloud concepts in this video will heavily help you for your next goal: CCSP!"– Luke Ahmed
Today is Day 17 of Yihenew’s CISSP study plan, focusing on the Five Essential Cloud Characteristics — a set of NIST-defined principles that every CISSP must know cold.
Key Areas Covered:
On-Demand Self-Service — users can provision resources without human intervention from IT staff.
Broad Network Access — resources are accessible over the network through standard mechanisms.
Resource Pooling — providers use a multi-tenant model to serve multiple customers dynamically.
Rapid Elasticity — resources can be scaled up or down quickly to meet demand.
Measured Service — cloud systems automatically control and optimize resources with metering capabilities.
CISSP Exam Tie-In — expect to be tested on distinguishing cloud service characteristics from security properties like CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability).
In this CISSP study plan session, Yihenew emphasized that these five cloud characteristics are not just memorization items — they connect directly to business drivers for cloud adoption and the risk considerations that managers must weigh.
Quick CISSP Practice Question
Which of the following is not one of the five essential characteristics of cloud computing?
A. Resource pooling
B. Rapid elasticity
C. Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
D. Measured service
✅ Correct Answer: C. Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
Explanation:CIA is a security triad, not a NIST-defined cloud characteristic. The five official characteristics are on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.
Think Like a Manager: On the exam, don’t just think like an engineer configuring AWS or Azure — think like a decision-maker. Why would a manager adopt cloud? Cost savings through resource pooling, agility through rapid elasticity, accountability via measured service. The CISSP wants you to tie technical features back to strategic value and governance considerations.
👉 Can you take the Yani Challenge?
55 days of consistent CISSP prep, tackling one domain at a time, using only the resources below:
Course
Luke's CISSP Course (2 months access, $89.98)
One-to-one Zoom sessions with Luke Ahmed (2 weeks before exam)
Books, Notes, and Practice Questions
All-In-One Study Guide by Shon Harris (Around $45)
Sybex 10th Edition (Around $52.55)
Total Cost: approxiamately $250 depending on your geographic location. Yani is located in East Africa.
📚 Study Plan (55 Days of Dedication):
- Weekdays: 2–3 hours of focused study—late nights and early mornings (5 AM).
- Weekends: 5–6 hours of deep study sessions.
Pass CISSP in first attempt within 100 questions.
Yani's biggest expense was his time, committment, consistency, and dedication! It was worth it because he passed first attempt in 100 questions using the above resources only.
If Yihenew could do it, so can you.
All the best Future CISSP. You can feel free to contact me anytime as well.
Thank you.
Luke Ahmed
