Metered utilization is a pricing model for cloud computing services, where the customer pays only for the amount of resources that are consumed, such as CPU time, memory, storage, bandwidth, etc. The customer is billed based on the actual usage of the resources, rather than a fixed or upfront fee. Metered utilization is also known as usage-based pricing or pay-per-use12.
Pay-as-you-go is an example of metered utilization, where the customer pays for the cloud resources on demand, without any long-term commitment or contract. The customer can scale up or down the resources as needed, and only pay for what is used. Pay-as-you-go is a flexible and cost-effective option for customers who have unpredictable or variable workloads, or who want to try out new services or features12.
The other options are not examples of metered utilization. Reserved instance is a pricing model where the customer pays a discounted rate for a fixed amount of cloud resources for a specified period of time, such as one or three years. The customer can reserve the resources in advance, and benefit from lower costs and guaranteed availability. Reserved instance is suitable for customers who have predictable or steady workloads, or who want to optimize their budget12.
Subscription-based is a pricing model where the customer pays a fixed fee for a set of cloud services or features for a certain period of time, such as monthly or annually. The customer can access the services or features as much as needed, without worrying about the usage or consumption of the resources. Subscription-based is suitable for customers who want to have a consistent and predictable cost, or who want to access premium or exclusive services or features12.
Multitenant is not a pricing model, but a cloud architecture where multiple customers share the same physical or virtual resources, such as servers, databases, applications, etc. The resources are isolated and secured for each customer, and the customers can benefit from lower costs, higher scalability, and faster updates. Multitenant is a common characteristic of public cloud services, where the cloud provider manages and maintains the resources for the customers12.
References:
CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1101) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 4: Cloud Computing and Virtualization, Section 4.2: Cloud Computing Concepts, Page 261
CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1101) and Core 2 (220-1102) Exam Cram, Chapter 6: Cloud Computing and Virtualization, Section 6.2: Cloud Computing Concepts, Page 241