This AZ-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe cloud concepts. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company uses a public cloud service where they share physical hardware with other customers. This allows the provider to offer low prices due to economies of scale. Which cloud characteristic is being described?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Multi-tenancy
Multi-tenancy is the cloud characteristic where a single instance of physical hardware (or software) serves multiple customers (tenants), isolating their data and configurations while sharing underlying resources. This sharing enables the provider to achieve economies of scale, reducing per-customer costs and allowing low prices. The scenario explicitly describes sharing physical hardware with other customers, which is the core definition of multi-tenancy.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Elasticity
Why it's wrong here
Elasticity is the ability to automatically scale resources up or down based on demand, not the sharing of infrastructure.
✗
Scalability
Why it's wrong here
Scalability is the ability to increase resources to handle growth, but it does not describe the sharing of physical hardware.
✓
Multi-tenancy
Why this is correct
Multi-tenancy is the correct term for sharing physical infrastructure among multiple customers, enabling cost savings through economies of scale.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
High availability
Why it's wrong here
High availability ensures applications remain operational during failures, but it does not refer to shared infrastructure.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse multi-tenancy with elasticity or scalability, because both involve resource management, but the key differentiator is the sharing of physical hardware with other customers for cost efficiency.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In multi-tenant architectures, the hypervisor (e.g., VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V) manages isolation between virtual machines belonging to different tenants, using techniques like memory ballooning and CPU scheduling to enforce resource limits. This shared model allows providers to achieve utilization rates above 80% (versus ~15% in typical on-premises deployments), directly driving down costs. A real-world example is Azure's shared infrastructure in its public cloud regions, where a single physical server may host VMs from hundreds of different customers, each with their own virtual network and security boundaries.
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.
TExam Day Tips
→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.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-900 question in full detail.
Describe cloud concepts — This question tests Describe cloud concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Multi-tenancy — Multi-tenancy is the cloud characteristic where a single instance of physical hardware (or software) serves multiple customers (tenants), isolating their data and configurations while sharing underlying resources. This sharing enables the provider to achieve economies of scale, reducing per-customer costs and allowing low prices. The scenario explicitly describes sharing physical hardware with other customers, which is the core definition of multi-tenancy.
What should I do if I get this AZ-900 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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