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A company hosts a critical line-of-business application on Azure virtual machines. The application must remain available even if a single virtual machine fails due to hardware failure or operating system crash. The company deploys two virtual machines in an Availability Set and configures an Azure Load Balancer to distribute traffic. If one VM becomes unavailable, the Load Balancer automatically redirects traffic to the healthy VM. This configuration primarily demonstrates which benefit of cloud computing?

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A company hosts a critical line-of-business application on Azure virtual machines. The application must remain available even if a single virtual machine fails due to hardware failure or operating system crash. The company deploys two virtual machines in an Availability Set and configures an Azure Load Balancer to distribute traffic. If one VM becomes unavailable, the Load Balancer automatically redirects traffic to the healthy VM. This configuration primarily demonstrates which benefit of cloud computing?

Answer choices

Why each option matters

Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.

A

Distractor review

Elasticity – ability to scale resources up and down

Elasticity refers to automatically provisioning and releasing resources to match demand, not to recovering from failures. The scenario focuses on keeping the application running despite a VM failure, not on adjusting capacity.

B

Best answer

Reliability – ability to recover from failures and continue functioning

Correct. The use of an Availability Set and Load Balancer ensures that the application can tolerate the failure of a single VM and continue serving traffic. This is a direct example of reliability, a key benefit of cloud computing.

C

Distractor review

Security – protection against unauthorized access

Security is about controlling access, encrypting data, and defending against threats. The scenario does not describe any security mechanisms such as firewalls, network security groups, or identity management.

D

Distractor review

Cost efficiency – paying only for consumed resources

Cost efficiency relates to the pay-as-you-go model and avoiding upfront investment. While Azure does offer cost efficiency, this scenario is specifically about ensuring availability through redundancy, not about cost savings.

Common exam trap

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.

Technical deep dive

How to think about this question

This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.

KKey Concepts to Remember

  • Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
  • Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
  • Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
  • Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.

TExam Day Tips

  • Underline the problem statement mentally.
  • Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
  • Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.

Related practice questions

Related AZ-900 practice-question pages

Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.

More questions from this exam

Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.

Question 1

A developer is building a serverless application that requires integration with an on-premises SQL Server database for real-time data processing. The on-premises network is connected to Azure via a site-to-site VPN. Which Azure service would allow the function to securely access the on-premises database without exposing it to the public internet?

Question 2

A solutions architect is designing a storage solution for a large media company. The company needs to store video files that are accessed infrequently but must be retained for several years for compliance. Which two Azure storage options meet these requirements? (Select two.)

Question 3

A company deploys a multi-tier application using Azure virtual machines. The web tier VMs must be evenly distributed across two distinct data centers within an Azure region to avoid a single point of failure from an infrastructure outage. Which Azure construct should they use to meet this requirement?

Question 4

A company wants to enforce a set of security policies across all their Azure subscriptions. They have created several individual policy definitions. Which Azure construct should they use to group these policies together and assign them as a single package?

Question 5

A company deploys a line-of-business application on an Azure virtual machine. The IT team wants to ensure the application remains secure. According to the shared responsibility model, which of the following security tasks is the sole responsibility of the customer (the company)?

Question 6

A company develops a web API that runs on Azure App Service. The development team wants to deploy a new version of the API to a staging environment, run integration tests against it, and then gradually shift production traffic to the new version. If any issues are detected, they want to immediately roll back to the previous version without redeploying. Which Azure App Service feature should the team use to meet these requirements?

FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this AZ-900 question test?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Reliability – ability to recover from failures and continue functioning — The scenario describes deploying multiple VMs in an Availability Set with a load balancer so that application traffic is automatically redirected to a healthy VM if one fails. This improves the application's ability to withstand failures and continue operating, which is the definition of reliability (often also referred to as high availability or fault tolerance) in cloud computing. Elasticity (A) is about scaling resources up/down automatically based on demand. Security (C) is about protecting data and access. Cost efficiency (D) is about paying only for consumed resources and avoiding upfront costs.

What should I do if I get this AZ-900 question wrong?

Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.

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