Question 98 of 1,013
Cloud Tenant Isolation: Using Dedicated Accounts and Audit Logs
A regulated analytics workload is moving to a public cloud. The business wants the strongest practical tenant isolation without managing physical servers, and it also needs an audit trail for changes made to the cloud environment. Which two design choices best meet those requirements? Select two.
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to place the workload in a dedicated account, project, or subscription with restricted cross-account access, and to enable cloud control-plane logging with centralized retention. This combination delivers the strongest practical tenant isolation without physical servers by leveraging the provider’s native resource boundaries and IAM policies, while the centralized audit logs capture every change made to the cloud environment, satisfying the compliance requirement for a complete audit trail. On the Security+ SY0-701 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of logical isolation strategies versus network-only controls, with a common trap being to select a VPN or VPC peering instead of a dedicated account. Remember the mnemonic “Dedicated Account, Central Logs” to link the two essential choices for both isolation and accountability.
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse network-level isolation (like subnets) with tenant isolation at the control plane, or assume cloud providers automatically handle guest OS auditing, leading them to select C or D instead of the correct combination of A and B.
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
✓
Place the workload in a dedicated account, project, or subscription with restricted cross-account access.
Placing the workload in a dedicated account, project, or subscription with restricted cross-account access provides strong logical isolation at the cloud provider's control plane. This approach meets the requirement for tenant isolation without managing physical servers, as it leverages the provider's built-in resource boundaries and IAM policies to prevent unauthorized access between tenants.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Place the workload in a dedicated account, project, or subscription with restricted cross-account access.
Why this is correct
A dedicated account, project, or subscription provides stronger logical isolation than placing the workload in a shared environment. Restricting cross-account access reduces accidental or unauthorized sharing and makes governance easier. This is a common cloud architecture pattern for regulated workloads that need separation without the overhead of managing physical infrastructure.
- ✓
Enable cloud control-plane logging and retain the logs centrally.
Why this is correct
Control-plane logging creates an audit trail for administrative actions such as policy changes, role assignments, and resource modifications. Central retention helps security teams investigate events, correlate activity, and preserve evidence. For a regulated workload, this visibility is essential because it documents who changed the cloud environment and when.
- ✗
Deploy the workload in a shared public subnet to simplify routing between tenants.
Why it's wrong here
A shared public subnet increases exposure and does not provide strong tenant isolation. It may simplify some network paths, but it undermines the requirement for separation between workloads. Regulated data should be placed in a more controlled network boundary, not in a shared public segment.
- ✗
Assume the cloud provider will record every guest operating system event automatically.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud providers usually log the platform and control plane, but guest operating system logging remains the customer's responsibility. Assuming the provider captures everything can leave major visibility gaps. The organization still needs to configure OS-level logs and application logs where appropriate.
- ✗
Disable logging to reduce storage costs because the provider already has all necessary records.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling logs removes the evidence needed for investigations and compliance. Cost savings do not outweigh the loss of auditability, especially for a regulated workload. The provider does not automatically replace customer logging needs, and control-plane visibility is often critical for incident response and governance.
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Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on SY0-701
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A regulated analytics workload must run in the cloud with the strongest isolation from other customers, but the company does not want to manage its own physical server room. Which placement is most appropriate?
medium- A.A public subnet with an internet gateway so the workload can be reached directly.
- B.A shared-tenancy virtual machine in the provider's default compute pool.
- ✓ C.A dedicated host or equivalent single-tenant compute placement in the provider's environment.
- D.A serverless function because it removes all underlying infrastructure concerns.
Why C: A dedicated host or single-tenant compute placement ensures that the physical server is not shared with any other customer, providing the strongest isolation required for regulated workloads. This model meets the compliance need for physical separation while still being a cloud service, so the company avoids managing its own server room.
Variation 2. A regulated analytics workload must run in a public cloud with the strongest practical tenant isolation while avoiding management of physical servers. The workload should also remain off the public internet. Which two deployment choices best fit? Select two.
medium- ✓ A.Run the workload on a dedicated host or dedicated instance.
- ✓ B.Place the workload in a private subnet without a public IP address.
- C.Use shared tenancy with security groups only.
- D.Assign an elastic IP so administrators can reach the workload directly from anywhere.
- E.Expose the workload through a public load balancer to simplify connectivity.
Why A: A dedicated host or dedicated instance provides the strongest practical tenant isolation in a public cloud by ensuring that the underlying physical server is not shared with any other customer. This meets the regulatory requirement for strong isolation while avoiding the need to manage physical servers, as the cloud provider still handles hardware maintenance. The dedicated instance model (e.g., AWS Dedicated Instances) offers hardware-level isolation at the instance level, while a dedicated host gives you visibility and control over the physical server, both without requiring you to manage the server itself.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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