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Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity

This SC-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity. 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 is migrating its on-premises workloads to Azure. The CISO wants to understand the division of security responsibilities between Microsoft and the customer across cloud service models. For which cloud service model does the customer have the most security responsibility?

Question 1mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Why wrong: In SaaS, the provider manages most of the security stack (application, data, runtime, etc.), leaving the customer mainly responsible for data classification and user access. This is the least customer responsibility.
B
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Why wrong: The provider manages the runtime, middleware, OS, and infrastructure; the customer is responsible for their applications and data. Customer responsibility is moderate, less than IaaS.
C
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
In IaaS, the customer manages the virtual machines, operating systems, applications, and data, while the provider manages the physical hosts and network. This gives the customer the most security responsibility among cloud service models.
D
On-premises
Why wrong: On-premises is not a cloud service model. In an on-premises environment, all security is the customer's responsibility, but the question specifically asks about cloud service models.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

In the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, the customer is responsible for securing the operating system, applications, data, and network configurations, while Microsoft only secures the physical datacenter, host servers, and hypervisor. This gives the customer the most security responsibility compared to PaaS or SaaS, where Microsoft manages more of the stack.

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.

✗
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Why it's wrong here
In SaaS, the provider manages most of the security stack (application, data, runtime, etc.), leaving the customer mainly responsible for data classification and user access. This is the least customer responsibility.
✗
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Why it's wrong here
The provider manages the runtime, middleware, OS, and infrastructure; the customer is responsible for their applications and data. Customer responsibility is moderate, less than IaaS.
✓
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Why this is correct
In IaaS, the customer manages the virtual machines, operating systems, applications, and data, while the provider manages the physical hosts and network. This gives the customer the most security responsibility among cloud service models.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
On-premises
Why it's wrong here
On-premises is not a cloud service model. In an on-premises environment, all security is the customer's responsibility, but the question specifically asks about cloud service models.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'most responsibility' with 'most control' and incorrectly pick on-premises (Option D), forgetting that the question explicitly asks about cloud service models, where IaaS gives the customer the greatest security responsibility among the cloud options.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Under the shared responsibility model, the customer's security burden decreases as you move from IaaS to PaaS to SaaS. For IaaS, the customer must configure network security groups (NSGs), manage OS patches, and implement encryption at rest and in transit, while Microsoft only secures the physical layer and hypervisor. A real-world scenario is a customer deploying a virtual machine in Azure IaaS: they must harden the guest OS, apply firewall rules, and manage identity access, whereas in PaaS like Azure App Service, Microsoft handles the underlying OS and runtime patches.

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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SC-900 question test?

Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity — This question tests Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) — In the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, the customer is responsible for securing the operating system, applications, data, and network configurations, while Microsoft only secures the physical datacenter, host servers, and hypervisor. This gives the customer the most security responsibility compared to PaaS or SaaS, where Microsoft manages more of the stack.

What should I do if I get this SC-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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