AZ-900 Describe Azure management and governance Practice Question
A company has multiple Azure subscriptions used by different departments. The security team wants to enforce a requirement that all Azure Storage accounts in every subscription must be encrypted at rest using customer-managed keys (CMK). The solution must automatically evaluate existing and new storage accounts for compliance, and it must be able to automatically remediate non-compliant resources by enabling CMK encryption. The team wants to use a single, centralized Azure feature that can be assigned once and apply to all subscriptions. Which Azure feature should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Azure Policy's continuous compliance enforcement and remediation capabilities with Azure Blueprints' deployment-time orchestration, leading candidates to choose Blueprints because they think 'assign once and apply to all subscriptions' implies a template-based approach.
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
✓
Azure Policy
Azure Policy is the correct choice because it can enforce organizational standards and assess compliance across all Azure subscriptions from a single assignment. By using a built-in or custom policy definition that requires storage accounts to use customer-managed keys (CMK) for encryption at rest, Azure Policy can automatically evaluate both existing and new storage accounts. With the 'DeployIfNotExists' effect, it can also trigger remediation tasks to enable CMK encryption on non-compliant resources without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Azure Policy
Why this is correct
Azure Policy can be assigned at a management group or subscription level to audit and automatically enforce compliance rules. It includes built-in policies for storage encryption with customer-managed keys and can perform automatic remediation. This is the correct choice because it allows centralized governance across multiple subscriptions.
- ✗
Azure Blueprints
Why it's wrong here
Azure Blueprints are used to define a repeatable set of Azure resources and policies that adhere to organizational standards. However, they are primarily used for deploying new environments, not for continuously evaluating or enforcing compliance on existing resources. They are not the best fit for ongoing compliance monitoring and automatic remediation.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to deploy a consistent set of Azure resources (e.g., virtual networks, storage accounts, and RBAC roles) along with a policy assignment for a new subscription. The solution must package these components together for repeated deployment. Azure Blueprints would be correct because it orchestrates the deployment of resource templates and policy assignments as a single, versioned artifact.
- ✗
Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Why it's wrong here
Azure RBAC is an identity and access management service that controls who can perform specific actions on Azure resources through role assignments. It does not evaluate or enforce resource configuration, such as whether a storage account uses customer-managed keys for encryption. Because RBAC operates on the authorization plane rather than the compliance plane, it cannot audit encryption settings, detect non-compliant storage accounts, or automatically remediate them, making it unsuitable for this governance requirement.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to grant specific users the ability to manage storage account encryption keys but restrict their access to other storage account settings. Azure RBAC would be correct to assign a custom role with permissions like 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/encryption/action'.
- ✗
Azure Security Center (Microsoft Defender for Cloud)
Why it's wrong here
Azure Security Center provides security recommendations and threat detection, including identifying storage accounts without encryption. However, it does not automatically enforce or remediate configurations. To enable automatic enforcement and remediation, you would need to integrate with Azure Policy, making Azure Policy the primary service for this requirement.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to centrally monitor security vulnerabilities and receive recommendations for all Azure subscriptions, including storage account encryption status, but does not require automatic remediation. The team needs a unified dashboard for security alerts and compliance posture across multiple subscriptions.
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.
✓Azure PolicyCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Azure Policy can be assigned at a management group or subscription level to audit and automatically enforce compliance rules. It includes built-in policies for storage encryption with customer-managed keys and can perform automatic remediation. This is the correct choice because it allows centralized governance across multiple subscriptions.
✗Azure BlueprintsWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure Blueprints can define and deploy a set of Azure resources and policies, but it cannot automatically evaluate existing resources for compliance or automatically remediate non-compliant resources across multiple subscriptions without manual reapplication. The question requires a feature that continuously evaluates and auto-remediates, which is Azure Policy's initiative with a managed identity.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to deploy a consistent set of Azure resources (e.g., virtual networks, storage accounts, and RBAC roles) along with a policy assignment for a new subscription. The solution must package these components together for repeated deployment. Azure Blueprints would be correct because it orchestrates the deployment of resource templates and policy assignments as a single, versioned artifact.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Blueprints with Policy because both can enforce standards. Blueprints can include policy assignments, leading them to think Blueprints can also evaluate and remediate existing resources, but Blueprints only applies at deployment time, not continuously.
✗Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure RBAC manages permissions to Azure resources but cannot enforce or audit encryption settings or automatically remediate non-compliant resources. It lacks the policy evaluation and remediation capabilities required for this scenario.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to grant specific users the ability to manage storage account encryption keys but restrict their access to other storage account settings. Azure RBAC would be correct to assign a custom role with permissions like 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/encryption/action'.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse access control (who can do what) with compliance enforcement (what configuration must be), assuming that restricting permissions can enforce encryption settings.
✗Azure Security Center (Microsoft Defender for Cloud)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Azure Security Center (Microsoft Defender for Cloud) provides security recommendations and posture management, but it cannot automatically remediate non-compliant resources by enabling CMK encryption. It lacks the built-in enforcement and remediation capabilities that Azure Policy offers.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to centrally monitor security vulnerabilities and receive recommendations for all Azure subscriptions, including storage account encryption status, but does not require automatic remediation. The team needs a unified dashboard for security alerts and compliance posture across multiple subscriptions.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Security Center's security recommendations and compliance monitoring with Azure Policy's enforcement and remediation capabilities, assuming that Security Center can also automatically fix non-compliant resources.
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
Azure Cost Management and Billing
Key term
Security
Security in IT is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, damage, or theft.
Key term
Azure Policy
Azure Policy is a service in Microsoft Azure that lets you create, assign, and manage rules to ensure your resources stay compliant with your company standards and service-level agreements.
About these practice questions
This AZ-900 question is part of Courseiva's 981-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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.