AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Question
Which type of cloud deployment model uses a combination of on-premises infrastructure and public cloud services?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse hybrid cloud with multi-cloud, mistakenly thinking that using multiple public clouds (multi-cloud) inherently includes on-premises resources, but hybrid cloud specifically requires a combination of on-premises and public cloud, not just multiple public clouds.
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 deployment model explicitly combines on-premises infrastructure (private cloud or local datacenter) with public cloud services, allowing data and applications to be shared between them. This enables organizations to keep sensitive workloads on-premises while leveraging the scalability of public cloud for burst capacity or less critical workloads, often connected via VPN or dedicated circuits like Azure ExpressRoute.
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
Public cloud is a deployment model where a third-party provider owns and operates all infrastructure, delivering services over the internet to multiple tenants. There is no on-premises component or dedicated private infrastructure — the customer does not manage the underlying hardware. Because the question describes a mix of on-premises and cloud resources, public cloud alone cannot satisfy the requirement, as it lacks any private/on-premises integration.
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Private cloud
Why it's wrong here
Private cloud is an environment dedicated to a single organization, whether hosted on-premises or by a third party, but with no shared public cloud exposure or integration. It provides enhanced control and isolation, yet it does not by itself combine with public cloud services. Hybrid cloud extends private cloud by connecting it to public cloud resources to gain elasticity and scalability, so a purely private model would miss the public cloud component described.
- ✓
Hybrid cloud
Why this is correct
Hybrid cloud is the deployment model that connects an organization's on-premises private infrastructure (or private cloud) to public cloud services, enabling data and application portability between them. This matches the scenario that mixes on-premises resources with public cloud capabilities. A common use case is cloud bursting, where an application runs on-premises and expands into the public cloud during demand spikes, or using public cloud for backup/disaster recovery while core workloads stay on-premises.
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Multi-cloud
Why it's wrong here
Multi-cloud refers to using services from multiple public cloud providers (e.g., AWS and Azure) simultaneously, often to avoid vendor lock-in or to leverage best-of-breed capabilities. It does not inherently involve any on-premises infrastructure, whereas hybrid cloud specifically integrates a private/on-premises environment with a public cloud. The defining distinction is that multi-cloud operates entirely in public cloud footprints, whereas hybrid cloud crosses the boundary between private and public.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
What is Cloud Computing?
Key term
Scalability
Scalability is the ability of a system, network, or process to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources, either by making the existing resources more powerful (vertical scaling) or by adding more resources (horizontal scaling).
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.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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