AZ-305 Design data storage solutions Practice Question
You need to design a storage solution for a website that hosts static content (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and requires low-cost, scalable storage with integrated CDN delivery. Which Azure service should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Azure Files (a managed file share) with Blob Storage (object storage) for static web hosting, or mistakenly think Azure CDN alone can store content without an origin service.
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
✓
Azure Blob Storage with static website hosting and Azure CDN
Azure Blob Storage with static website hosting provides a cost-effective, scalable storage solution for static content (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). By enabling Azure CDN on top of the storage account, you achieve low-latency global content delivery and offload traffic from the origin, reducing costs and improving performance for end users.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Azure Files with SMB protocol
Why it's wrong here
Azure Files provides managed SMB/NFS file shares intended for lift-and-shift file servers and application sharing, not for HTTP-based web serving. It exposes no native static website endpoint, and the SMB protocol is unsuitable for anonymous internet browser clients. Serving a website from Azure Files would require an additional web server or VM to translate SMB into HTTP, making it an inefficient and awkward storage solution.
- ✗
Azure Content Delivery Network only
Why it's wrong here
Azure CDN is a caching and delivery layer that accelerates content but cannot store or serve the original website files by itself. A CDN endpoint must point to a backend origin, such as Azure Blob Storage or a web server, otherwise there is no source of truth for the content. Without a storage origin, the site has no durable, highly available files to cache, so CDN alone fails as the primary storage solution.
- ✓
Azure Blob Storage with static website hosting and Azure CDN
Why this is correct
Blob Storage with static website hosting natively serves HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images over HTTPS from a public endpoint, with configurable index and error documents. Adding Azure CDN in front provides global edge caching, custom domain support, automated TLS, and DDoS mitigation. This combination is cost-effective for static assets because storage and bandwidth scale elastically while requiring no virtual machines or always-on application runtime.
- ✗
Azure App Service
Why it's wrong here
Azure App Service is a fully managed compute platform designed for dynamic web apps, APIs, and background jobs that need server-side code execution. Hosting immutable static assets on App Service wastes compute resources and costs more than optimized object storage, even though it can technically serve static files. For a purely content-based site, Blob Storage paired with CDN delivers faster and more economical performance than a dedicated app-hosting tier.
Quick reference
Azure Blob Storage Tier Comparison
| Tier | Storage Cost | Retrieval Cost | Latency | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | Highest | Lowest | Immediate | Active data, frequent reads |
| Cool | Lower | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / month |
| Cold | Lower still | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / quarter |
| Archive | Lowest | Highest + rehydration delay | Hours | Long-term compliance retention |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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