AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Question
A company operates on-premises servers that they own. They are considering moving to Azure. Which cloud benefit would MOST directly reduce their total cost of ownership?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse 'eliminating hardware costs' with other indirect benefits like compliance or support, but the question specifically asks for the MOST direct reduction in TCO, which is the removal of physical hardware purchase and maintenance expenses.
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
✓
Eliminating hardware purchase and maintenance costs
Moving to Azure eliminates the need to purchase, maintain, and eventually replace physical servers, which directly reduces capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational costs related to hardware lifecycle management. This is the most direct way to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) when transitioning from on-premises infrastructure to a public cloud model.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Automatic compliance with all regulations
Why it's wrong here
Azure does not automatically ensure compliance with all regulations; the shared responsibility model makes customers accountable for configuring identity, data protection, and access policies. While Azure holds certifications like ISO 27001 and SOC 2, you are still responsible for adhering to specific legal and industry requirements, using tools such as Azure Policy and Defender for Cloud to monitor and enforce controls. Compliance is an ongoing configuration task, not a built-in feature.
- ✓
Eliminating hardware purchase and maintenance costs
Why this is correct
Moving to Azure eliminates the capital expenditure (CapEx) for purchasing and maintaining physical servers, storage, and datacenter infrastructure. Instead of buying hardware and managing refresh cycles, you subscribe to a pay-as-you-go operational expenditure (OpEx) model, paying only for the resources you use and scaling on demand. This shift removes the burden of hardware maintenance, power, cooling, and facility costs, making it a core financial benefit of cloud adoption.
- ✗
Guaranteed zero downtime for all services
Why it's wrong here
Azure's service-level agreements (SLAs) guarantee a specific uptime percentage, such as 99.9%, not zero downtime; 99.9% uptime still permits about 8.76 hours of downtime per year. Achieving even this SLA often requires redundancy like availability zones or multiple instance deployments, because individual components may have lower SLA targets. A zero-downtime guarantee is impossible with any cloud provider, as failures and maintenance windows can still occur.
- ✗
Free support for all Azure services
Why it's wrong here
Azure does not provide free support for all services; the Basic support plan only covers billing and subscription administration, not technical troubleshooting. Proactive technical support requires a paid support plan (Developer, Standard, or Professional Direct), each with a monthly fee and different response times. Therefore, while you can access some free documentation and community support, live technical assistance is a separate, paid Azure offering.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
What is Cloud Computing?
Key term
TCO
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the complete cost of owning and operating an IT asset over its entire lifecycle, including purchase, maintenance, support, energy, and disposal costs, not just the initial price tag.
Key term
Total cost of ownership
Total cost of ownership (TCO) is the complete cost of owning and operating an IT asset over its entire lifecycle, including purchase price, maintenance, support, energy, and disposal fees.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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