AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Test 2 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A startup wants to quickly deploy a web application without worrying about server maintenance. They only want to focus on writing code and deploying it. Which cloud service model best fits this requirement?

Accepted Answer

B) Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a managed hosting environment where the cloud provider handles the underlying infrastructure (servers, storage, networking, OS patches) while the customer focuses solely on deploying and managing their own code and data. This directly matches the startup's requirement to avoid server maintenance and concentrate on writing and deploying code.

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A) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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C) Software as a Service (SaaS)

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D) Functions as a Service (FaaS)

Question 2

A company is considering moving its on-premises workloads to the cloud. They want to reduce their carbon footprint by using a cloud provider that uses renewable energy. Which cloud computing benefit is most directly related to this goal?

Accepted Answer

C) Sustainability. Option C is correct because sustainability directly addresses the goal of reducing carbon footprint through the use of renewable energy. Cloud providers like Microsoft Azure invest in renewable energy projects and carbon offset programs, enabling customers to lower their environmental impact by consolidating workloads in energy-efficient data centers. This benefit is explicitly tied to environmental responsibility, not operational metrics like uptime or resource scaling.

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A) High availability

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B) Scalability

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D) Elasticity

Question 3

A company wants to ensure that its cloud resources are available even if a major disaster occurs in one region. They plan to deploy resources in two different geographic locations. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario primarily address?

Accepted Answer

D) Disaster recovery. Option D (Disaster recovery) is correct because the scenario explicitly describes deploying resources in two different geographic locations to ensure availability despite a major regional disaster. Disaster recovery (DR) focuses on restoring services and data after a catastrophic failure, often using paired regions (e.g., Azure paired regions) to provide geo-redundancy and failover capabilities. This goes beyond simple uptime guarantees to address full recovery from region-level outages.

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A) Scalability

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B) Elasticity

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C) High availability

Question 4

A company wants to pay only for the compute resources they actually use, with no upfront costs. They can scale up or down based on demand. Which cloud pricing model does this describe?

Accepted Answer

B) Pay-as-you-go. The pay-as-you-go model (also called consumption-based pricing) allows a company to pay only for the compute resources they actually consume, with no upfront costs or long-term commitments. This model provides the flexibility to scale resources up or down based on real-time demand, aligning costs directly with usage. It is the standard pricing model for most cloud services, including Azure virtual machines and App Service plans, when no reservation or spot discount is applied.

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A) Reserved capacity

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C) Spot pricing

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D) Hybrid benefit

Question 5

A company runs a seasonal e-commerce application. During holidays, traffic increases tenfold, but the company does not want to over-provision resources for the rest of the year. They want to add or remove server capacity automatically based on real-time demand and pay only for what they use. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario describe?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud computing characteristic that enables automatic scaling of resources up or down based on real-time demand. In this scenario, the e-commerce application needs to handle a tenfold traffic increase during holidays without over-provisioning for the rest of the year, which is exactly what elasticity provides by adding or removing server capacity dynamically and charging only for what is used.

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High availability

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Reliability

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Fault tolerance

Question 6

A startup is building a mobile app backend and wants to use cloud services. They want to focus entirely on writing code and deploying features without worrying about server maintenance, operating system patches, or scaling infrastructure. Which cloud service model best fits this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the correct model because it abstracts the underlying infrastructure, including servers, operating systems, and scaling, allowing developers to focus solely on writing code and deploying features. Azure App Service is a prime example of PaaS, providing built-in load balancing, auto-scaling, and patching without developer intervention.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Function as a Service (FaaS)

Question 7

A hospital stores sensitive patient data in the cloud. They want to ensure that data remains secure and that the cloud provider has implemented strict physical security controls, such as biometric access and 24/7 surveillance at datacenters. Which aspect of the shared responsibility model does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Responsibility of the cloud provider for physical security. The shared responsibility model delineates that the cloud provider is responsible for the security 'of' the cloud, which includes physical infrastructure controls like biometric access and 24/7 surveillance at datacenters. This question specifically asks about physical security controls, which fall under the provider's domain regardless of the deployment model (IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS). Therefore, option B is correct because the provider must secure the physical premises housing the servers and storage.

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Responsibility of the customer for network security

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Responsibility of the customer for data classification

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Responsibility of the customer for identity and access management

Question 8

A company wants to reduce its carbon footprint by using a cloud provider that invests in renewable energy. They want to ensure that their workloads in Azure run in datacenters that are among the most energy-efficient. Which Azure benefit is most directly related to this goal?

Accepted Answer

Environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability is the Azure benefit that directly addresses the company's goal of reducing its carbon footprint by using a cloud provider that invests in renewable energy and operates energy-efficient datacenters. Microsoft has committed to being carbon negative by 2030 and powers its Azure datacenters with 100% renewable energy, making this the most relevant benefit for the stated objective.

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Economies of scale

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Scalability

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Security and compliance

Question 9

A company is moving from an on-premises data center to the cloud. Previously, they paid a large upfront sum for hardware and then annual maintenance fees. Now they pay a monthly subscription based on actual usage of compute and storage. This shift represents moving from which type of expenditure to which?

Accepted Answer

From CapEx to OpEx. Option B is correct because the scenario describes a shift from paying a large upfront sum for hardware (a capital expenditure, or CapEx) to a monthly subscription based on actual usage (an operational expenditure, or OpEx). In cloud computing, CapEx involves significant upfront costs for physical infrastructure, while OpEx involves ongoing, pay-as-you-go costs for services like compute and storage. This transition is a fundamental benefit of cloud adoption, allowing organizations to avoid large initial investments and instead pay for what they consume.

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From OpEx to CapEx

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From variable to fixed costs

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From direct to indirect costs

Question 10

A company is moving from an on-premises data center to the cloud. Previously, they paid a large upfront sum for servers and storage, plus annual maintenance fees. Now they pay a monthly subscription based on the amount of compute and storage they actually use. This shift represents moving from which type of expenditure to which?

Accepted Answer

From CapEx to OpEx. This scenario describes a shift from Capital Expenditure (CapEx) to Operational Expenditure (OpEx). CapEx involves upfront purchases of physical assets like servers and storage, which are capitalized and depreciated over time. OpEx, on the other hand, is a pay-as-you-go model where costs are incurred based on actual usage, such as monthly cloud subscription fees for compute and storage resources.

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From OpEx to CapEx

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From direct cost to indirect cost

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From variable cost to fixed cost

Question 11

A startup wants to run a web application without purchasing or managing any servers. They only want to upload their code and let the cloud provider handle everything from the runtime to scaling. Which cloud service model best fits this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the correct model because it provides a fully managed hosting environment where the startup can deploy their web application code without needing to provision or manage underlying servers, operating systems, or runtime infrastructure. Azure App Service is a prime example of PaaS that handles automatic scaling, load balancing, and patching, allowing developers to focus solely on code.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Function as a Service (FaaS)

Question 12

A hospital stores patient data in the cloud. They are concerned about physical security at the datacenter. Which aspect of the shared responsibility model describes the cloud provider's obligation to secure the physical infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

Security of physical hardware. In the shared responsibility model, the cloud provider is always responsible for the physical security of the datacenter, including the physical hardware, environmental controls (power, cooling), and physical access controls. This is a foundational principle of the model: the provider secures the physical layer, while the customer secures what they deploy on top of it.

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Security of the network infrastructure

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Security of customer data

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Security of operating systems

Question 13

A company runs a seasonal e-commerce application. During the holiday season, demand spikes significantly, but the company does not want to pay for idle resources the rest of the year. They want the cloud to automatically add or remove compute resources based on real-time demand. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario best describe?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables automatic scaling of resources up or down in real-time to match demand. In this scenario, the e-commerce application needs to add compute resources during holiday spikes and remove them when demand drops, avoiding paying for idle resources. This aligns directly with elasticity, which is often implemented via auto-scaling groups and load balancers that adjust capacity based on metrics like CPU utilization or request count.

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Scalability

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High availability

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Disaster recovery

Question 14

A company is moving its on-premises data center to the cloud. Previously, they purchased servers and paid for maintenance. Now they pay a monthly subscription for compute and storage based on actual usage. This is an example of shifting from capital expenditure (CapEx) to which type of expenditure?

Accepted Answer

Operating expenditure (OpEx). This scenario describes a shift from upfront capital investment in physical servers and maintenance (CapEx) to a pay-as-you-go model where costs are incurred based on actual usage. In cloud computing, this is the definition of operating expenditure (OpEx), as the company pays a recurring monthly subscription for compute and storage resources rather than making a large initial purchase.

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Variable expenditure

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Direct expenditure

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Indirect expenditure

Question 15

A hospital stores patient health records in the cloud. They are responsible for encrypting the data before storing it, while the cloud provider is responsible for securing the physical datacenter. Which cloud model is being described?

Accepted Answer

Shared responsibility model. The scenario describes a division of security responsibilities: the hospital encrypts data (customer responsibility) and the cloud provider secures the physical datacenter (provider responsibility). This is the core definition of the shared responsibility model, where security obligations are split based on the cloud service model (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and the customer's control over the data and configurations.

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Community cloud

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Hybrid cloud

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Private cloud