THIS DAVID PAPKIN PAGE INFO PAGE MICROSOFT AZURE AZ-900 COURSE
Course AZ-900T00-A: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
Q & A
Q
How to download billing invoice and daily usage data from your Azure subscription?
A
The data can be downloaded using the Azure Portal.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/understand/download-azure-daily-usage
Q
What things should be considered when migrating your virtual machines (VM) from on-premises to Azure?
A
Security, Compatibility, Cost, Price.
Q
Can virtual machines be moved to a different region or vnet?
A
Although possible, not all resources might be able to moved.
Better to take a snapshot of the disks and use to create VM in new region/vnet.
Q
What Azure role is needed for a user to fully manage all objects in Azure , including access?
A
Global Administrator
Q
How does an Azure Webapp and a IaaS Vm with Web Server role differ?
A
Azure Webapp is a PaaS , which is fully managed by Azure. All HA and patching are done by Azure.
IaaS VM is managed by the customer, all patching, security, HA needs to be managed by the customer.
Q What is Cloud Computing?
A is the delivery of computing services — including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and more — over the internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
Instead of owning and maintaining physical infrastructure, users can access and pay for cloud services on demand from a cloud provider such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.
Q What are some cloud computing benefits?
A
There are several advantages that a cloud environment has over a physical environment that Tailwind Traders can use following its migration to Azure.
- High availability: Depending on the service-level agreement (SLA) that you choose, your cloud-based apps can provide a continuous user experience with no apparent downtime, even when things go wrong.
- Scalability: Apps in the cloud can scale vertically and horizontally:
- Scale vertically to increase compute capacity by adding RAM or CPUs to a virtual machine.
- Scaling horizontally increases compute capacity by adding instances of resources, such as adding VMs to the configuration.
- Elasticity: You can configure cloud-based apps to take advantage of autoscaling, so your apps always have the resources they need.
- Agility: Deploy and configure cloud-based resources quickly as your app requirements change.
- Geo-distribution: You can deploy apps and data to regional datacenters around the globe, thereby ensuring that your customers always have the best performance in their region.
- Disaster recovery: By taking advantage of cloud-based backup services, data replication, and geo-distribution, you can deploy your apps with the confidence that comes from knowing that your data is safe in the event of disaster.
- Governance . Provides control over policies, usage, and access across resources. ncludes auditing, tagging, policy enforcement (e.g., Azure Policy, AWS Organizations).
- Manageability. Offers centralized management tools for monitoring, automation, and configuration. Enables IT teams to manage large environments with minimal overhead.
- Security. Cloud providers implement advanced security controls: encryption, IAM, DDoS protection. Shared responsibility model defines roles between provider and customer.
- Reliability. Ensures system continues to operate correctly under defined conditions. Backed by SLAs (e.g., 99.99% uptime) and resilient infrastructure.
Q
What are the differences between Capital Expenses (CapEx) and Operational Expenses (OpEx)
A
Capital expenses vs. operating expenses
There are two different types of expenses that you should consider:
- Capital Expenditure (CapEx) is the up-front spending of money on physical infrastructure, and then deducting that up-front expense over time. The up-front cost from CapEx has a value that reduces over time.
- Operational Expenditure (OpEx) is spending money on services or products now, and being billed for them now. You can deduct this expense in the same year you spend it. There is no up-front cost, as you pay for a service or product as you use it.
Q What can you use to view your costs and billing info?
A
Cost Management and Billing.
Q
What are some monitoring tools that can be used with Azure?
A
- Azure Monitor – It delivers a comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your cloud and on-premises environments.
- Azure Alerts – Azure Monitor Alerts help you detect and address issues before users notice them by proactively notifying you when Azure Monitor data indicates there might be a problem with your infrastructure or application.
- Log Analytics – Log Analytics is a tool in the Azure portal that’s used to edit and run log queries against data in the Azure Monitor Logs store
- Network Watcher – Detect and monitor issues related to the network performance of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) resources in Microsoft Azure.
Q What are some challenges and benefits of using Azure for Cloud Computing ?
A
Benefits
-
Scalability – Instantly scale resources up/down.
-
Global Reach – 60+ regions for low-latency, geo-redundant services.
-
Microsoft Integration – Seamless with AD, Windows Server, Office 365.
-
Security & Compliance – Built-in protection & compliance (ISO, HIPAA, GDPR).
-
Hybrid Capability – Azure Arc, ExpressRoute for on-prem integration.
-
Cost Tools – Azure Advisor & Cost Management help reduce waste.
-
DevOps & Automation – Supports CI/CD, ARM, Bicep, Terraform.
-
Broad Services – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, AI, ML, containers, and more.
⚠️ Challenges
-
Cost Complexity – Risk of over-provisioning or underutilization.
-
Learning Curve – Requires Azure-specific skills.
-
Downtime Risks – Occasional regional outages.
-
Quotas & Limits – VM cores, storage quotas can constrain scaling.
-
Vendor Lock-in – Deep MS integration limits portability.
-
Compliance Burden – Misconfigurations can break compliance.
-
Latency – Hybrid/multi-region setups may introduce delay.
-
Complexity at Scale – Managing RBAC, policies, subscriptions gets complex
Q
How can you categorise billing for different departments and make sure this is enforced?
A
You can use tags for the different departments.
You can use Azure Policy to make sure each department uses the tags.
Q What is an Azure Region?
A
A region in Azure is made up of multiple datacenters located within a specific area, chosen for low-latency connections and linked through a specialized network.
Q What is an Azure Availability Zone?
A
Many Azure regions provide availability zones, which are separated groups of datacenters within a region. Availability zones are close enough to have low-latency connections to other availability zones. They’re connected by a high-performance network with a round-trip latency of less than 2ms. However, availability zones are far enough apart to reduce the likelihood that more than one will be affected by local outages or weather. Availability zones have independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. They’re designed so that if one zone experiences an outage, then regional services, capacity, and high availability are supported by the remaining zones. They help your data stay synchronized and accessible when things go wrong.
Q What are the Azure Storage Access Tiers
A
- Hot tier – An online tier optimized for storing data that is accessed or modified frequently. The hot tier has the highest storage costs, but the lowest access costs.
- Cool tier – An online tier optimized for storing data that is infrequently accessed or modified. Data in the cool tier should be stored for a minimum of 30 days. The cool tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the hot tier.
- Cold tier – An online tier optimized for storing data that is infrequently accessed or modified. Data in the cold tier should be stored for a minimum of 90 days. The cold tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the cool tier.
- Archive tier – An offline tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed, and that has flexible latency requirements, on the order of hours. Data in the archive tier should be stored for a minimum of 180 days.
Q What is Defense in Depth in Cloud Computing?
A Defense in Depth (DiD) is a cybersecurity strategy that uses multiple layers of security controls across an IT environment to protect data, applications, and infrastructure. In cloud computing, this approach ensures that if one layer is compromised, other layers still provide protection.
Q What to do to ensure applications and workloads have low-latency and high-availability access to the resources and services in Azure?
A Choose the region with the lowest latency and highest availability and that have availability zones.
Q Using Azure Entra ID with security Best Practices, how to manage a company’s Azure accounts?
A Use Azure Advisor and implement MFA, Least Privilege and possibly Azure Sentinel and other Entra ID P2 cybersecurity features
Q How to monitor stability and performance and security of Azure applications and workloads?
A Use Azure Advisor with the categories of Security, Performance, Operational Excellence and follow the recommendations. Also follow recommendations in Azure Defender and Sentinel.
Q what are some things that can affect cost in azure?
A ???? Top 10 Factors That Affect Cost in Microsoft Azure
-
???? Resource Type
Different services (VMs, storage, databases, etc.) have different pricing models.
Example: A Standard D-series VM costs more than a B-series. -
???? Region (Geography)
Pricing varies between Azure regions (e.g., East US vs Southeast Asia).
Some regions may be more expensive due to demand or infrastructure costs. -
⏱ Usage Duration
Azure charges per second or per hour depending on the service.
Always-on vs. on-demand affects cost significantly. -
???? Instance Size and Tier
Larger VM sizes or higher service tiers (e.g., Premium Storage, S3 databases) cost more.
Choosing the right size based on workload needs is critical. -
???? Auto-scaling and Elasticity
Improper scaling (e.g., keeping resources over-provisioned) increases cost.
Autoscaling helps reduce cost by adjusting to demand. -
???? Licensing and Software
Services like Windows VMs include OS licensing in the cost.
Azure Hybrid Benefit allows reuse of on-prem licenses to save costs. -
???? Data Transfer
Outbound data transfer (egress) across regions or out of Azure incurs charges.
Inbound data (ingress) is usually free. -
???? Storage Type and Redundancy
Premium vs Standard, and LRS (locally redundant) vs GRS (geo-redundant) affect cost.
Example: GRS is more expensive due to cross-region replication. -
???? Reserved Instances vs Pay-as-you-go
Committing to 1- or 3-year Reserved Instances gives significant discounts.
Pay-as-you-go is more flexible but more expensive. -
???? Resource Wastage
Unused resources (e.g., idle VMs, unattached disks, unused public IPs) still generate charges.
*
Azure 900 Practices
Ch2
Exercise – Explore the Learn sandbox
Walkthrough – explore the Azure Global infrastructure
Exercise – Create an Azure resource
Exercise – Create an Azure virtual machine
Exercise – Configure network access
Exercise – Create a storage blob
Ch3
Exercise―use the Azure pricing calculator
Exercise―use the Azure TCO calculator
Helpful Azure learning links
Microsoft Learn – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/certifications/exams/az-900
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn – Learn new skills and discover the power of Microsoft products with step-by-step guidance. Start your journey today by exploring our learning paths and modules.
Microsoft Azure Forums The Azure forums are very active. You can search the threads for a
specific area of interest. You can also browse categories like Azure Storage, Pricing
and Billing, Azure Virtual Machines, and Azure Migrate.
Azure Architecture Center Gain access to the Azure Application Architecture Guide,
Azure Reference Architectures, and the Cloud Design Patterns.
Microsoft Learning Community Blog Get the latest information the certification
tests and exam study groups.
https://channel9.msdn.com/ Channel 9 provides a wealth of informational videos, shows, and
events.
Azure Tuesdays With Corey Corey Sanders answers your questions about
Microsoft Azure – Virtual Machines, Web Sites, Mobile Services, Dev/Test etc.
Azure Fridays Join Scott Hanselman as he engages one-on-one with the engineers
who build the services that power Microsoft Azure as they demo capabilities,
answer Scott’s questions, and share their insights.
Microsoft Azure Blog Keep current on what’s happening in Azure, including what’s
now in preview, generally available, news & updates, and more.
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