AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Test 1

Incorrect: A PaaS solution does not provide access to the operating system. The Azure Web Apps service provides an environment for you to host your web applications. Behind the scenes, the web apps are hosted on virtual machines running IIS. However, you have no direct access to the virtual machine, the operating system or IIS. Correct: A PaaS solution that hosts web apps in Azure does provide the ability to scale the platform automatically. This is known as autoscaling. Behind the scenes, the web apps are hosted on virtual machines running IIS. Autoscaling means adding more load balanced virtual machines to host the web apps. Correct: PaaS provides a framework that developers can build upon to develop or customize cloud-based applications. PaaS development tools can cut the time it takes to code new apps with pre-coded application components built into the platform, such as workflow, directory services, security features, search and so on.

Correct: Traditionally, IT expenses have been considered a Capital Expenditure (CapEx). Today, with the move to the cloud and the pay-as-you-go model, organizations have the ability to stretch their budgets and are shifting their IT CapEx costs to Operating Expenditures (OpEx) instead. This flexibility, in accounting terms, is now an option due to the “as a Service” model of purchasing software, cloud storage and other IT related resources. Incorrect: Two virtual machines using the same size could have different disk configurations. Therefore, the monthly costs could be different. Correct: When an Azure virtual machine is stopped, you don’t pay for the virtual machine. However, you do still pay for the storage costs associated to the virtual machine. The most common storage costs are for the disks attached to the virtual machines. There are also other storage costs associated with a virtual machine such as storage for diagnostic data and virtual machine backups.

expenditure is the spending of money up-front for infrastructure such as new servers. With a hybrid cloud, you can continue to use the on-premises servers while adding new servers in the public cloud (Azure for example). Adding new servers in Azure minimizes the capital expenditure costs as you are not paying for new servers as you would if you deployed new server on-premises.

Azure SQL databases are Platform as a Service (Paas). Azure SQL Database is a fully managed Platform as a Service (PaaS) Database Engine that handles most of the database management functions such as upgrading, patching, backups, and monitoring without user involvement. Azure SQL Database is always running on the latest stable version of SQL Server Database Engine and patched OS with 99.99% availability. PaaS capabilities that are built-in into Azure SQL database enable you to focus on the domain specific database administration and optimization activities that are critical for your business

Azure virtual machines are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Infrastructure as a Service is the most flexible category of cloud services. It aims to give you complete control over the hardware that runs your application (IT infrastructure servers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, and operating systems). Instead of buying hardware, with IaaS, you rent it.

A private cloud is hosted in your datacenter. Therefore, you cannot close your datacenter if you are using a private cloud. A public cloud is hosted externally, for example, in Microsoft Azure. An organization that hosts its infrastructure in a public cloud can close its data center. Public cloud is the most common deployment model. In this case, you have no local hardware to manage or keep up-to-date – everything runs on your cloud provider's hardware. Microsoft Azure is an example of a public cloud provider. In a private cloud, you create a cloud environment in your own datacenter and provide self-service access to compute resources to users in your organization. This offers a simulation of a public cloud to your users, but you remain completely responsible for the purchase and maintenance of the hardware and software services you provide.

It is not true that a company must always migrate from a private cloud model to implement a hybrid cloud. You could start with a public cloud and then combine that with an on-premise infrastructure to implement a hybrid cloud. Correct: A company can extend the capacity of its internal network by using the public cloud. This is very common. When you need more capacity, rather than pay out for new on-premises infrastructure, you can configure a cloud environment and connect your on-premises network to the cloud environment by using a VPN. Incorrect: It is not true that only guest users can access cloud resources. You can give anyone with an account in Azure Active Directory access to the cloud resources. There are many authentication scenarios but a common one is to replicate your on-premises Active Directory accounts to Azure Active Directory and provide access to the Azure Active Directory accounts. Another commonly used authentication method is ‘Federation’ where authentication for access to cloud resources is passed to another authentication provider such as an on- premises Active Directory.

Azure App Service is a PaaS (Platform as a Service) service. However, Azure virtual machines are an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) service. Therefore, this solution does not meet the goal.

When you are implementing a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, you are responsible for configuring the SaaS solution. Everything else is managed by the cloud provider. SaaS requires the least amount of management. The cloud provider is responsible for managing everything, and the end user just uses the software. Software as a service (SaaS) allows users to connect to and use cloud-based apps over the Internet. Common examples are email, calendaring and office tools (such as Microsoft Office 365). SaaS provides a complete software solution which you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis from a cloud service provider. You rent the use of an app for your organization and your users connect to it over the Internet, usually with a web browser. All of the underlying infrastructure, middleware, app software and app data are located in the service provider’s data center. The service provider manages the hardware and software and with the appropriate service agreement, will ensure the availability and the security of the app and your data as well.

Elasticity in this case is the ability to provide additional compute resource when needed and reduce the compute resource when not needed to reduce costs. Autoscaling is an example of elasticity. Elastic computing is the ability to quickly expand or decrease computer processing, memory and storage resources to meet changing demands without worrying about capacity planning and engineering for peak usage. Typically controlled by system monitoring tools, elastic computing matches the amount of resources allocated to the amount of resources actually needed without disrupting operations. With cloud elasticity, a company avoids paying for unused capacity or idle resources and doesn’t have to worry about investing in the purchase or maintenance of additional resources and equipment.

Explanation Azure App Service is a PaaS (Platform as a Service) service. However, Azure Storage accounts are an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) service. Therefore, this solution does not meet the goal.

With the public cloud, you get pay-as-you-go pricing – you pay only for what you use, no CapEx costs. With the public cloud, you have self-service management. You are responsible for the deployment and configuration of the cloud resources such as virtual machines or web sites. The underlying hardware that hosts the cloud resources is managed by the cloud provider.

Azure Site Recovery helps ensure business continuity by keeping business apps and workloads running during outages. Site Recovery replicates workloads running on physical and virtual machines (VMs) from a primary site to a secondary location.

When planning to migrate a public website to Azure, you must plan to pay monthly usage costs. This is because Azure uses the pay-as-you-go model.

One of the major changes that you will face when you move from on-premises cloud to the public cloud is the switch from capital expenditure (buying hardware) to operating expenditure (paying for service as you use it). This switch also requires more careful management of your costs. The benefit of the cloud is that you can fundamentally and positively affect the cost of a service you use by merely shutting down or resizing it when it's not needed.

Azure App Service and Azure SQL databases are examples of Azure PaaS solutions. Therefore, this solution does meet the goal.

The public cloud is a shared entity whereby multiple corporations each use a portion of the resources in the cloud. The hardware resources (servers, infrastructure etc.) are managed by the cloud provider. Multiple companies create resources such as virtual machines and virtual networks on the hardware resources.

Azure App Service is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that lets you create web and mobile apps for any platform or device and connect to data anywhere, in the cloud or on-premises. App Service includes the web and mobile capabilities that were previously delivered separately as Azure Websites and Azure Mobile Services.

Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to continue to function in the event of a failure of some of its components. In this question, you could have servers that are replicated across datacenters. Availability zones expand the level of control you have to maintain the availability of the applications and data on your VMs. Availability Zones are unique physical locations within an Azure region. Each zone is made up of one or more datacenters equipped with independent power, cooling, and networking. To ensure resiliency, there are a minimum of three separate zones in all enabled regions. The physical separation of Availability Zones within a region protects applications and data from datacenter failures. With Availability Zones, Azure offers industry best 99.99% VM uptime SLA. By architecting your solutions to use replicated VMs in zones, you can protect your applications and data from the loss of a datacenter. If one zone is compromised, then replicated apps and data are instantly available in another zone.