AZ-900 Describe Azure architecture and services Practice Question
A financial services company must migrate a critical application to Azure. Regulatory compliance requires that the virtual machines (VMs) hosting this application run on physical servers that are dedicated solely to the company and not shared with any other Azure customer. The company needs full control over server hardware maintenance, including the ability to schedule updates and isolate the environment at the physical layer. Which Azure compute solution should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Azure Reserved Instances with dedicated hardware, mistakenly thinking a billing commitment provides physical isolation, when in fact Reserved Instances only reduce costs without changing the underlying multi-tenant architecture.
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 Dedicated Host
Azure Dedicated Host provides physical servers dedicated to a single Azure subscription, ensuring that no other customer's VMs share the hardware. This meets the regulatory requirement for physical isolation and gives the company full control over server hardware maintenance, including the ability to schedule updates and manage the host lifecycle independently.
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 Dedicated Host
Why this is correct
Azure Dedicated Host provides physical servers dedicated to one Azure subscription. VMs are isolated at the hardware level, and the customer controls maintenance and scheduling. This fully satisfies the compliance requirement for physical server isolation.
- ✗
Azure Reserved Instances
Why it's wrong here
Reserved Instances are a billing and pricing model that offers discounted rates in exchange for a one- or three-year commitment. They do not provide any physical server isolation; VMs purchased under Reserved Instances may still run on shared physical hardware.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to reduce costs for a predictable workload by committing to a one- or three-year term for VM usage, without requiring physical isolation or hardware control.
- ✗
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets
Why it's wrong here
Virtual Machine Scale Sets allow you to deploy and manage a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can scale in or out automatically. They do not guarantee that the VMs are placed on a dedicated physical host; the underlying hardware may be shared with other tenants.
- ✗
Azure Confidential Computing
Why it's wrong here
Confidential computing protects data in use by using hardware-based trusted execution environments (e.g., Intel SGX). While this provides strong data encryption during processing, it does not ensure that the entire physical server is dedicated to a single customer. Multiple tenants' VMs using confidential computing can still reside on the same physical host.
When this WOULD be correct
An exam question where the requirement is to protect sensitive data during processing (e.g., healthcare or financial data) by encrypting it in memory, and the customer does not need dedicated hardware or maintenance control. For example: 'A hospital needs to run a workload that processes patient data and must ensure data is encrypted while in use.'
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.
✓Azure Dedicated HostCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Azure Dedicated Host provides physical servers dedicated to one Azure subscription. VMs are isolated at the hardware level, and the customer controls maintenance and scheduling. This fully satisfies the compliance requirement for physical server isolation.
✗Azure Reserved InstancesWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure Reserved Instances provide a billing discount for committing to a one- or three-year term, but they do not guarantee dedicated physical servers or control over hardware maintenance.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to reduce costs for a predictable workload by committing to a one- or three-year term for VM usage, without requiring physical isolation or hardware control.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'reserved' with 'dedicated,' assuming that reserving capacity ensures exclusive hardware, but Reserved Instances only affect pricing, not physical isolation.
✗Azure Confidential ComputingWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure Confidential Computing protects data in use via hardware-level encryption, but it does not provide dedicated physical servers or control over server hardware maintenance. The question requires exclusive physical servers and full control over maintenance, which is not offered by Confidential Computing.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
An exam question where the requirement is to protect sensitive data during processing (e.g., healthcare or financial data) by encrypting it in memory, and the customer does not need dedicated hardware or maintenance control. For example: 'A hospital needs to run a workload that processes patient data and must ensure data is encrypted while in use.'
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'hardware-level isolation' with 'dedicated physical servers,' assuming that Confidential Computing's use of trusted execution environments (TEEs) provides the same isolation as a dedicated host. They might also think that hardware-based security implies exclusive hardware ownership.
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
Azure Regions and Geographies
Key term
Environment
An environment is a dedicated set of computing resources, configurations, and services used to develop, test, or host software applications in a controlled and repeatable way.
Key term
Azure subscription
An Azure subscription is a logical container in Microsoft Azure that provides billing isolation and access boundaries for your cloud resources and services.
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.