AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Question
A company runs a workload that requires predictable performance and dedicated physical servers. They also need to ensure no other tenant uses the same hardware. Which cloud deployment model meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse 'dedicated hardware' with a hybrid cloud, thinking it combines the best of both worlds, but hybrid still relies on public cloud resources that are multi-tenant by default.
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
✓
Private
A private cloud deployment model is correct because it provides dedicated physical servers and ensures that no other tenant shares the same hardware. In a private cloud, the infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization, offering predictable performance and complete isolation from other tenants. This model can be hosted on-premises or by a third-party provider, but the key requirement of dedicated hardware is met.
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
Why it's wrong here
Public cloud is wrong because it primarily relies on multi-tenant infrastructure, meaning physical compute, storage, and network resources are shared among numerous customers. Although you can scale resources elastically, you do not have exclusive use of any dedicated hardware unless you opt for specialized offerings like dedicated hosts. For a workload requiring predictable performance, the inherent variability and shared nature of the default public model can cause performance fluctuations due to other tenants' activity.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to run a workload with variable demand and wants to pay only for resources used, without upfront hardware costs. They have no strict compliance or isolation requirements. In that scenario, the public cloud model would be correct.
- ✓
Private
Why this is correct
Private cloud is the correct choice because it provisions dedicated physical servers exclusively for one organization, delivering single-tenant infrastructure with no resource contention. This complete control over compute, storage, and networking allows consistent, predictable performance because workloads are isolated from outside traffic and 'noisy neighbor' effects. You can also tailor hardware configurations and capacity exactly to the workload's requirements, ensuring SLAs are met reliably.
- ✗
Hybrid
Why it's wrong here
Hybrid cloud is wrong for this requirement because it combines private and public cloud environments. While the private portion may offer dedicated hardware, the public portion operates on shared, multi-tenant infrastructure where resources are pooled among many customers. This introduces variable performance and potential contention in the public component, so the overall solution does not guarantee the dedicated, predictable performance the workload needs.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to keep sensitive data on-premises for compliance while using public cloud for burst capacity. Which model meets this requirement?
- ✗
Community
Why it's wrong here
Community cloud is wrong because it is shared among multiple organizations that have similar compliance or regulatory concerns, rather than being isolated to a single tenant. This multi-tenant sharing means the underlying hardware is not dedicated, and the activity of other participant organizations can affect performance. While it offers more control than public cloud, it still cannot provide the same level of predictable, dedicated performance as a fully private environment.
When this WOULD be correct
A question asks: 'A group of hospitals needs to share a cloud environment to comply with healthcare regulations while maintaining some isolation from the public. Which deployment model meets these requirements?'
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.
✓PrivateCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Private cloud is the correct choice because it provisions dedicated physical servers exclusively for one organization, delivering single-tenant infrastructure with no resource contention. This complete control over compute, storage, and networking allows consistent, predictable performance because workloads are isolated from outside traffic and 'noisy neighbor' effects. You can also tailor hardware configurations and capacity exactly to the workload's requirements, ensuring SLAs are met reliably.
✗PublicWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
The public cloud model shares physical hardware among multiple tenants, which cannot guarantee dedicated physical servers or isolation from other tenants. The requirement for predictable performance and no other tenant on the same hardware necessitates a private cloud.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to run a workload with variable demand and wants to pay only for resources used, without upfront hardware costs. They have no strict compliance or isolation requirements. In that scenario, the public cloud model would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think public cloud offers dedicated instances or assume that performance isolation is always available, not realizing that dedicated physical servers are a private cloud feature.
✗HybridWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Hybrid combines public and private clouds, but the question requires dedicated physical servers and no other tenant sharing hardware, which is a characteristic of a private cloud, not hybrid.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to keep sensitive data on-premises for compliance while using public cloud for burst capacity. Which model meets this requirement?
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think hybrid offers dedicated hardware through its private component, but the question explicitly demands no other tenant sharing hardware, which hybrid does not guarantee across its entire deployment.
✗CommunityWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
A community cloud is shared by several organizations with common concerns, not dedicated to a single tenant. It does not guarantee dedicated physical servers or isolation from other tenants.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question asks: 'A group of hospitals needs to share a cloud environment to comply with healthcare regulations while maintaining some isolation from the public. Which deployment model meets these requirements?'
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'community' with 'private' because both offer some level of isolation, but community is multi-tenant among a specific group, not single-tenant.
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
Workload
A workload is any discrete application, service, or function that runs on a computing resource, consuming CPU, memory, storage, or network capacity.
Key term
Tenant
A dedicated and isolated instance of Microsoft Entra ID that an organization receives when signing up for a Microsoft cloud service.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every AZ-900 question from scratch — 981 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.