AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A retail company hosts an e-commerce website on on-premises servers. During seasonal sales events, the website experiences traffic spikes that last for a few hours. Several years ago, the company purchased additional servers to handle these spikes, but those servers now sit idle for most of the year. The company is considering moving the website to Azure. Which benefit of cloud computing would most directly help the company avoid maintaining idle hardware while still being able to handle traffic spikes?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the correct answer because it allows the company to automatically scale computing resources up during traffic spikes and scale down when demand drops, eliminating the need to maintain idle on-premises servers. In Azure, this is achieved through features like Virtual Machine Scale Sets and autoscale rules that adjust capacity based on metrics such as CPU usage or request count, ensuring the company only pays for resources consumed during peak periods.

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High availability

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Disaster recovery

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Geo-redundancy

Question 2

A company migrates its web application to Azure App Service (Platform as a Service). The application processes sensitive customer data and must ensure that all data in memory is encrypted while the application is running. According to the shared responsibility model, which party is responsible for implementing encryption of data in memory for this application?

Accepted Answer

The company, because it is responsible for securing its own application data and code.. In the shared responsibility model for PaaS like Azure App Service, Microsoft secures the physical host, OS, and platform runtime, but the customer retains responsibility for securing application-level data, including data in memory. Encrypting data in memory requires application code changes (e.g., using .NET's `ProtectedMemory` or Windows DPAPI), which is solely the customer's responsibility because Microsoft cannot access or manage the application's runtime memory contents.

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Microsoft Azure, because it provides the hosting infrastructure and manages the runtime environment.

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Both Microsoft and the company share this responsibility equally.

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A third-party encryption service that is automatically enabled for all Azure App Service deployments.

Question 3

A manufacturing company runs its proprietary production scheduling software on on-premises servers. The IT team also manages on-premises file servers. The company decides to move its email system to Microsoft 365 but keeps all other systems on-premises. Which cloud deployment model does this scenario best describe?

Accepted Answer

Hybrid cloud. This scenario describes a hybrid cloud because the company uses a mix of on-premises infrastructure (production scheduling servers and file servers) and a public cloud service (Microsoft 365 for email). In a hybrid cloud model, organizations integrate on-premises resources with public cloud services, allowing data and applications to be shared between them. Here, the email system runs in Microsoft's public cloud while all other systems remain on-premises, creating a hybrid deployment.

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Private cloud

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Public cloud

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Community cloud

Question 4

A company runs multiple virtual machines (VMs) in Azure. The IT team notices that their VMs are hosted on physical hardware that is shared among multiple customers. The team has no ability to specify or control which physical server their VMs run on, and they cannot see the underlying hardware details. The VMs are, however, always available when requested. This scenario exemplifies which essential characteristic of cloud computing as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)?

Accepted Answer

Resource pooling. Resource pooling is the correct answer because the scenario describes the cloud provider's ability to serve multiple customers from the same physical hardware, with the customer having no control or knowledge of the exact underlying server. This is a core NIST characteristic where computing resources (including storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth) are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. The fact that VMs are always available when requested further aligns with the elasticity and on-demand nature of resource pooling, but the key is the shared, abstracted infrastructure.

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On-demand self-service

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Broad network access

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Rapid elasticity

Question 5

A company uses Azure for its infrastructure. A developer needs a new virtual machine to test a feature. The developer goes to the Azure portal, selects an image, and provisions the VM within minutes without any interaction with the IT procurement department. This capability directly demonstrates which essential characteristic of cloud computing as defined by NIST?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. The scenario describes a developer provisioning a virtual machine directly through the Azure portal without needing to submit a request or obtain approval from IT procurement. This aligns with the NIST definition of on-demand self-service, which states that a consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider. The key enabler here is the self-service portal (Azure portal) that allows the developer to select an image and deploy the VM instantly, bypassing any manual approval workflow.

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Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

Question 6

A company runs a critical line-of-business application on a single on-premises server. The company is migrating the application to Azure and wants to minimize downtime if the server hardware fails. The architect proposes deploying the application on two Azure virtual machines (VMs) in the same region, placed in an availability set. This configuration is designed to ensure that if one VM fails due to hardware failure or planned maintenance, the other VM remains running and the application stays available. Which cloud computing concept does this configuration primarily illustrate?

Accepted Answer

High availability. High availability (HA) is the correct concept because the configuration uses two VMs in an availability set to ensure the application remains accessible despite hardware failures or planned maintenance. An availability set distributes VMs across fault domains and update domains, guaranteeing that at least one VM stays operational during Azure platform events. This directly aligns with HA's goal of minimizing downtime and maximizing uptime for critical workloads.

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Fault tolerance

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Disaster recovery

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Elasticity

Question 7

A small business runs its IT infrastructure in a small on-premises server room. The business owner is considering moving to Azure and asks the IT manager: 'How can a large cloud provider like Microsoft offer compute and storage at a lower per-unit cost than I can get by purchasing my own servers, even though I only need a few virtual machines?' Which cloud computing benefit best answers this question?

Accepted Answer

Economies of scale. Option C is correct because economies of scale allow Microsoft to spread massive capital and operational costs (data center construction, power, cooling, hardware procurement) across millions of customers. This per-unit cost reduction means even a small business consuming only a few virtual machines benefits from the same low-cost infrastructure that a large enterprise would, making Azure's compute and storage cheaper than purchasing and maintaining dedicated on-premises servers.

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High availability

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Elasticity

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Fault tolerance

Question 8

A startup company plans to move its e-commerce application to Azure. The startup has limited upfront capital and expects demand to be unpredictable initially. The key requirement is that the company should only be charged for the compute and storage resources it actually uses, with the ability to pay per hour or per minute. This requirement directly maps to which fundamental benefit of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

Consumption-based pricing – customers pay only for the resources they consume, with no upfront costs.. Option C is correct because the startup's requirement to pay only for the compute and storage resources it actually uses, with per-hour or per-minute billing and no upfront capital, directly maps to consumption-based pricing. This cloud benefit eliminates the need for large initial investments and aligns costs with actual usage, which is ideal for unpredictable demand scenarios.

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High availability – redundant infrastructure ensures the application stays online.

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Elasticity – resources can automatically scale out and in based on demand.

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Disaster recovery – data and applications are backed up to another region.

Question 9

A company is migrating its customer relationship management (CRM) system to a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider. The provider manages the application, runtime, middleware, and infrastructure. The company's IT security team is concerned about who is responsible for protecting the company's data and managing user access. Based on the shared responsibility model for cloud computing, which statement is correct?

Accepted Answer

The company is responsible for managing user access and protecting their own data within the SaaS application.. In the shared responsibility model for SaaS, the provider manages the application, runtime, middleware, and infrastructure, but the customer retains responsibility for securing their own data and managing user access. This includes tasks such as data classification, identity and access management (IAM), and ensuring compliance with internal policies. Option C correctly identifies that the company must handle user access and data protection within the SaaS application.

Answer

The SaaS provider is responsible for everything, including data classification and user access control.

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The company is responsible for the security of the application itself, including patching vulnerabilities in the CRM software.

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The SaaS provider is responsible for physical security of data centers, and the company is responsible for patching the operating system of the servers hosting the CRM.

Question 10

A company is subject to strict data residency regulations that require all personally identifiable information (PII) to remain on their own physical servers. However, they want to use Azure for compute-intensive analytics that do not process PII. They also need a consistent set of management tools to manage resources across both environments. Which cloud deployment model should the company adopt?

Accepted Answer

Hybrid cloud. The hybrid cloud model is correct because it allows the company to keep PII on-premises (private cloud) to satisfy data residency regulations while running compute-intensive analytics in Azure (public cloud). Azure Arc provides a consistent set of management tools to govern resources across both environments, enabling unified policy, compliance, and monitoring.

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Public cloud

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Private cloud

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Community cloud

Question 11

A company currently runs its IT operations entirely on-premises. The finance team is evaluating moving to Azure and wants to understand the financial impact. They currently purchase new servers every five years as a large upfront capital expenditure (CapEx). In Azure, they would pay a fixed monthly subscription for virtual machines instead. This shift from a large upfront payment to a smaller monthly operational expense (OpEx) is a direct illustration of which cloud computing benefit?

Accepted Answer

Consumption-based pricing (OpEx model). Option D is correct because the shift from a large upfront capital expenditure (CapEx) for on-premises servers to a fixed monthly operational expense (OpEx) for Azure virtual machines directly illustrates the consumption-based pricing model. This model allows organizations to pay only for the resources they use, converting large, infrequent costs into predictable, smaller monthly payments. It is a fundamental cloud benefit that aligns with the OpEx financial model, enabling better cash flow management and budget forecasting.

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Elasticity

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High availability

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Predictable performance

Question 12

A retail company runs an e-commerce application on Azure virtual machines during peak holiday seasons. The application experiences high traffic for a few weeks each year. The IT team wants to automatically provision additional compute resources during high demand and remove them when demand drops, ensuring that the company only pays for resources while they are actively in use. Which cloud computing characteristic does this approach primarily rely on?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. This approach relies on elasticity, which is the ability of a cloud system to automatically scale resources up or down based on real-time demand. In this scenario, Azure virtual machines are provisioned during peak holiday traffic and deprovisioned when demand drops, ensuring the company only pays for resources while they are actively in use. Elasticity specifically handles dynamic, short-term fluctuations, whereas scalability is a broader term for handling long-term growth.

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Scalability

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High availability

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Fault tolerance

Question 13

A company is migrating a web application to Azure. The web tier will run on Azure App Service (PaaS) and the database tier will use Azure SQL Database (PaaS). The company's IT team wants to understand their patching responsibilities for the underlying operating system (OS) of each service. According to the shared responsibility model, which statement is correct?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft is responsible for patching the operating system of both Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database.. In the shared responsibility model, Microsoft manages the underlying infrastructure for Platform as a Service (PaaS) services. Both Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database are PaaS offerings, meaning Microsoft handles OS patching, updates, and security for the host OS. The customer is responsible only for their application code and data, not the OS. Therefore, option D is correct.

Answer

The customer is responsible for patching the operating system of both Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database.

Answer

Microsoft is responsible for patching the operating system of Azure App Service, and the customer is responsible for patching the operating system of Azure SQL Database.

Answer

The customer is responsible for patching the operating system of Azure App Service, and Microsoft is responsible for patching the operating system of Azure SQL Database.

Question 14

A company is deploying a mission-critical application on Azure virtual machines. The solution must remain operational even if a single Azure datacenter within a region experiences a complete outage. Which Azure feature should the company use to protect against this specific failure scenario?

Accepted Answer

Availability Zones. Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. By deploying the application across multiple zones, the solution remains operational if one entire datacenter fails, as the other zones continue to serve traffic. This directly addresses the requirement to survive a single datacenter outage within a region.

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Region Pairs

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Fault Domains

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Resource Groups

Question 15

A development team frequently needs to create and tear down test environments. In their on-premises datacenter, they must submit a ticket to the IT operations team, which often takes several days to provision the required servers. After migrating to Azure, developers can now create virtual machines, databases, and other resources directly through the Azure portal or using PowerShell scripts, without any interaction from the IT operations team. This ability to provision cloud resources directly is a direct example of which fundamental characteristic of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. Option C is correct because the scenario describes developers provisioning virtual machines, databases, and other resources directly through the Azure portal or PowerShell scripts without needing to interact with the IT operations team. This is the definition of on-demand self-service, a core characteristic of cloud computing defined by NIST (SP 800-145) as a consumer being able to unilaterally provision computing capabilities without requiring human interaction with each service provider.

Answer

Resource pooling

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Measured service

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Rapid elasticity