CV0-004 Cloud Architecture and Design Practice Question
A healthcare company runs a patient portal on virtual machines in a single on-premises datacenter. Regulatory requirements mandate that data must remain on-premises, but the company wants to burst to a public cloud during seasonal peaks and maintain a consistent operational model. The architect must design a hybrid solution that supports workload portability and centralized identity. Which approach BEST meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is equating a site-to-site VPN with hybrid cloud management; connectivity alone does not deliver consistent tooling, policy, or identity across environments.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy Azure Arc-enabled servers to project the on-premises VMs into Azure, use Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes for burst workloads, and integrate Microsoft Entra ID for centralized identity.
Azure Arc extends Azure management, policy, and monitoring to on-premises servers and Kubernetes clusters, so the company keeps patient data local while gaining a consistent operational model. Arc-enabled Kubernetes supports bursting workloads to Azure, and Microsoft Entra ID provides centralized identity across both environments, meeting portability and identity requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Deploy Azure Arc-enabled servers to project the on-premises VMs into Azure, use Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes for burst workloads, and integrate Microsoft Entra ID for centralized identity.
Why this is correct
Azure Arc projects on-premises servers and Kubernetes clusters into Azure Resource Manager, enabling consistent management, policy, and monitoring across both environments while keeping data on-premises. Burst workloads can run in Azure connected to the same identity plane through Microsoft Entra ID, satisfying portability and centralized identity.
- ✗
Establish a site-to-site VPN between the datacenter and the cloud, then manage each environment with its own native tools and separate identity stores.
Why it's wrong here
A VPN provides connectivity but not a consistent operational model; separate management tools and identity stores create configuration drift and duplicate administration. This design also does not provide a mechanism for workload portability or unified policy enforcement across the two environments.
- ✗
Use a third-party backup appliance to copy VM images to the cloud and restore them as cloud instances during peak periods, keeping separate credentials in each environment.
Why it's wrong here
Copying VM images and restoring them in the cloud is a disaster-recovery pattern, not a hybrid operating model. It introduces conversion and licensing issues, provides no centralized identity, and cannot burst elastically because instances must be restored manually before they can serve traffic.
- ✗
Replicate all patient data to the public cloud and run the portal entirely there, using the cloud provider's identity service for authentication.
Why it's wrong here
Moving patient data to the public cloud violates the regulatory requirement that data remain on-premises. This approach also abandons the hybrid model and centralized identity across both environments, so it fails the core constraints even though it simplifies operations.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This CV0-004 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CV0-004 exam.