An organization will be deploying a web application in a public cloud with two web servers, two database servers, and a load balancer that is accessible over a single public IP. Taking into account th

A /26 subnet provides 62 usable host addresses, which far exceeds the 8-host minimum and is not the minimum subnet size that meets the requirement.

A /27 subnet provides 30 usable host addresses, which also exceeds the 8-host minimum and is not the smallest subnet that satisfies the requirement.

The deployment requires 2 web servers + 2 database servers + 1 load balancer + 1 subnet gateway + 2 future web servers = 8 host IP addresses. A /28 subnet contains 16 total addresses yielding 14 usable host addresses after subtracting the network and broadcast addresses, which is the smallest block that satisfies the 8-host minimum. The next smaller option, a /29, provides only 6 usable addresses, which is insufficient.

A /29 subnet provides only 6 usable host addresses (8 total minus network and broadcast), which is insufficient for the 8 host addresses required when including the gateway and planned expansion.