Fundamental
Prepare and test your skills
Fundamental
Prepare and test your skills
Azure App Service Handles OS While You Manage Code
Free sample question, answered and explained below. The AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam practice bank has 688 more like it. Try 10 free: instant score, no account.
An organization plans to migrate an internal line-of-business web application to Microsoft Azure. The development team wants to focus solely on deploying custom code, configuring application settings, and managing data access.
The organization requires a hosting model where the cloud provider manages the underlying physical infrastructure, operating system maintenance, runtime updates, and hardware patching.
Which cloud service model best aligns with the organization's desired level of management responsibility?
Explanations
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
What Platform as a Service (PaaS) Is
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model where the cloud service provider delivers a fully managed environment for building, running, and managing applications. In PaaS, the provider abstracts the complexity of managing physical servers, storage, networking, operating system installations, and runtime environments.
How It Meets the Requirements
Under the shared responsibility model, PaaS strikes a balance between customer control and provider management:
- Operating System and Runtime Management: The cloud provider handles all OS installation, security patching, middleware, and runtime upgrades.
- Application and Data Control: The organization retains direct control over the application code, database configurations, and user access permissions without taking on server-level administration.
- Operational Efficiency: Development teams can deploy and scale their applications rapidly using services like Azure App Service without managing virtual machine infrastructure.
Key Advantages and Capabilities
- Reduced Maintenance Overhead: Eliminates the routine tasks of updating operating systems, kernel patches, and hardware drivers.
- Focus on Business Logic: Developers focus strictly on feature delivery, application performance, and user experience.
- Built-in Scalability: Easily scale compute instances up or out based on application demand.
- Integrated Security Controls: Built-in platform protections, automated backups, and identity integrations simplify compliance.
Why This Is Optimal
Choosing PaaS directly fulfills the organization's requirement to shift infrastructure and operating system maintenance to Microsoft while preserving control over application deployment and data governance.
On-Premises Private Cloud
On-Premises Private Cloud
What an On-Premises Private Cloud Is
An on-premises private cloud (or traditional on-premises datacenter) is an environment where the organization owns, operates, and maintains all physical and virtual components within its own infrastructure footprint.
Why It Doesn't Meet the Requirement
In an on-premises model:
- The organization retains 100% of the responsibility across the entire technology stack.
- The customer must handle physical security, power, cooling, server hardware, virtualization layers, operating system patching, runtimes, and network hardware.
- None of the operational management overhead is shifted to an external cloud provider like Microsoft.
This model completely contradicts the organization's goal of offloading infrastructure, hardware maintenance, and operating system updates to a cloud provider.
Key Characteristics and Limitations
- Total Customer Responsibility: Demands dedicated teams for facilities, physical hardware maintenance, and hypervisor management.
- High Capital Expenditure (CapEx): Requires substantial upfront investment in hardware, facilities, and network infrastructure.
- No Provider-Managed Services: Fails to provide automated OS patching or managed application runtime abstractions.
This Answer Would Be Correct If
The organization required complete ownership and physical custody of all hardware, facilities, and hypervisors due to strict regulatory or air-gapped isolation requirements.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
What Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Is
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud model that provisions fundamental computing resources, including virtual machines (VMs), virtual storage disks, and virtual network components. The cloud provider maintains the physical datacenter and virtualization hypervisors, but the consumer manages everything inside the virtual machines.
Why It Doesn't Meet the Requirement
Under the shared responsibility model for IaaS, the customer retains responsibility for:
- Installing, updating, and patching the operating system.
- Configuring and maintaining web servers, runtimes, and middleware.
- Implementing host-level security configurations, antivirus software, and local firewalls.
Because the organization specifically wants the cloud provider to manage operating system patching and runtime updates, IaaS introduces unnecessary administrative overhead.
Key Characteristics and Limitations
- Maximum Infrastructure Control: Provides deep administrative and root-level access to the OS.
- Higher Operational Burden: Demands regular maintenance, security patching, and backup management from internal IT staff.
- Full Configuration Flexibility: Allows custom kernel modifications, legacy software installations, and specific OS configurations.
This Answer Would Be Correct If
The organization needed direct administrative access to the underlying operating system, custom kernel extensions, or specialized legacy software that cannot run in a managed application runtime.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)
What Software as a Service (SaaS) Is
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud delivery model where the service provider hosts, manages, and delivers a fully functioning, end-user software application over the internet. Examples include Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and OneDrive.
Why It Doesn't Meet the Requirement
In a SaaS delivery model:
- The vendor manages the physical hardware, operating systems, networking, and the entire software application code.
- The customer's responsibility is largely limited to managing identities, user access, and the data entered into the system.
- Customers cannot deploy or host their own custom application code or modify the foundational architecture of the software.
Because the organization needs to build and deploy its own internal line-of-business custom application, SaaS is not a suitable service model.
Key Characteristics and Limitations
- Turnkey Applications: Ready-to-use software consumed directly by end users.
- Zero Infrastructure or Code Maintenance: The vendor maintains all application code, platform runtimes, and servers.
- Limited Customizability: Configuration is restricted to application-level settings provided by the vendor.
This Answer Would Be Correct If
The organization needed to subscribe to an existing, off-the-shelf software solution (such as email, CRM, or document collaboration) without developing any custom software.
Try 10 interactive questions like this one, free
Answer them yourself and get your score the moment you finish. No account needed.
Full access includes
- 688 practice questions across all 3 exam domains
- Every answer explained: why it is right, and why the others are not
- Scout, an AI tutor that answers your follow-up questions
- Readiness tracking by domain, so you know when to book the exam
Related questions
Keep the momentum going with these hand-picked practice scenarios
FundamentalAZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam
Shared Responsibility Model Customer Data and Identity
Describe the shared responsibility model
FundamentalAZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam
Shared Responsibility Model Physical Security
Describe the shared responsibility model
FundamentalAZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam
Shared Responsibility Model Physical Security
Describe the shared responsibility model
FundamentalAZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam
PaaS Shared Responsibility Model
Describe the shared responsibility model
FundamentalAZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam
Shared Responsibility Model Customer-Only Responsibilities
Describe the shared responsibility model
ExpertAZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Exam
Application Permissions vs Delegated Permissions
Configure app registration permission scopes
Last updated Validated