AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Question
A bank needs to keep some sensitive customer data on-premises due to regulatory requirements, but wants to use cloud services for less sensitive workloads. Which cloud deployment model should they adopt?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse hybrid cloud with a simple combination of public and private clouds, but the key distinction is that hybrid cloud requires orchestration and unified management between the two environments, not just having both.
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
✓
Hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud model combines on-premises infrastructure (private cloud) with public cloud services, allowing the bank to keep sensitive customer data on-premises to meet regulatory requirements while using the public cloud for less sensitive workloads. This approach provides a unified management plane and secure connectivity (e.g., VPN or Azure ExpressRoute) between the two environments, ensuring compliance and flexibility.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Public cloud
Why it's wrong here
A public cloud model places all storage and computing resources on infrastructure owned and operated by the cloud provider, with customers sharing the underlying hardware. For a bank that must keep sensitive customer data on premises, moving all data to the public cloud would likely violate data residency, sovereignty, or internal security policies. Therefore, public cloud alone is insufficient because it does not allow the bank to retain primary custody of regulated data on its own premises.
When this WOULD be correct
A company with no regulatory constraints and a need for scalability, cost-effectiveness, and minimal management overhead should choose public cloud for all workloads.
- ✗
Private cloud
Why it's wrong here
A private cloud is dedicated solely to one organization and may be hosted on-premises, but it lacks the integration with public cloud resources that the bank's scenario requires. Even if the bank runs its own private cloud, it would be responsible for all capacity, maintenance, and scaling, and it would not gain the economic or elastic benefits of offloading non-sensitive workloads to a shared public provider. The scenario specifically calls for connecting on-premises data storage with cloud services, which is the essence of hybrid, not private, cloud.
When this WOULD be correct
A company requires complete control over its infrastructure due to strict security or compliance mandates, and does not need to integrate with public cloud services. For example, a government agency handling classified data that must remain isolated from any external network.
- ✓
Hybrid cloud
Why this is correct
Hybrid cloud is the correct model because it explicitly unites an organization's on-premises infrastructure with public cloud services through secure, dedicated connectivity such as VPN or ExpressRoute. This architecture allows the bank to keep sensitive customer data on premises to satisfy regulatory requirements while still leveraging cloud scalability for less-critical or transient workloads. The defining characteristic is the orchestrated data and application portability between the two environments, which neither private nor public cloud offered alone.
- ✗
Community cloud
Why it's wrong here
A community cloud is a shared infrastructure used by several organizations from a specific community with common compliance, jurisdictional, or security concerns, but it is not designed to combine on-premises resources with a public cloud. This model is multi-tenant and typically hosted by a third party, so it would not satisfy the bank's explicit requirement to retain sensitive data on premises. The bank's need is a hybrid deployment, not a shared community platform, and community cloud does not provide the same public-cloud elasticity or the private-to-public bridging capability.
When this WOULD be correct
A question where multiple organizations with the same regulatory requirements (e.g., several banks in a consortium) need a shared cloud environment that meets their common compliance needs, but they cannot use a public cloud due to data sensitivity. Community cloud would be the correct answer.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The AZ-900 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Hybrid cloudCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Hybrid cloud is the correct model because it explicitly unites an organization's on-premises infrastructure with public cloud services through secure, dedicated connectivity such as VPN or ExpressRoute. This architecture allows the bank to keep sensitive customer data on premises to satisfy regulatory requirements while still leveraging cloud scalability for less-critical or transient workloads. The defining characteristic is the orchestrated data and application portability between the two environments, which neither private nor public cloud offered alone.
✗Public cloudWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
The bank must keep sensitive data on-premises due to regulations, so a public cloud alone cannot meet this requirement as it implies all resources are hosted by a third-party provider off-premises.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company with no regulatory constraints and a need for scalability, cost-effectiveness, and minimal management overhead should choose public cloud for all workloads.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think public cloud is the default modern choice, overlooking the specific regulatory constraint that mandates on-premises data storage.
✗Private cloudWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
A private cloud is dedicated to a single organization, but the bank wants to keep only some data on-premises while using cloud services for other workloads. A private cloud alone does not provide the hybrid capability to combine on-premises and public cloud resources.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company requires complete control over its infrastructure due to strict security or compliance mandates, and does not need to integrate with public cloud services. For example, a government agency handling classified data that must remain isolated from any external network.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think 'private cloud' is the safest choice for sensitive data, overlooking that the question explicitly requires both on-premises and cloud usage, which is the definition of hybrid cloud.
✗Community cloudWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Community cloud is designed for organizations with shared concerns (e.g., compliance, security) from a specific community, not for a single bank that needs to keep some data on-premises while using cloud for others. The bank's requirement is a hybrid of on-premises and public cloud, not a shared multi-tenant community.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question where multiple organizations with the same regulatory requirements (e.g., several banks in a consortium) need a shared cloud environment that meets their common compliance needs, but they cannot use a public cloud due to data sensitivity. Community cloud would be the correct answer.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'community' with 'hybrid' because both involve multiple environments, or they think that regulatory requirements automatically imply a community cloud, not realizing that hybrid cloud can also meet regulatory needs by keeping sensitive data on-premises.
Analysis generated from the official AZ-900blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
What is Cloud Computing?
Key term
Public cloud
A public cloud is a computing model where third-party providers deliver IT resources like servers, storage, and applications over the internet to multiple customers on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Key term
Hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud is a computing environment that combines a private cloud (on-premises infrastructure) with one or more public cloud services, allowing data and applications to be shared between them.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-900 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft 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 AZ-900 exam.