Sections 1. Mixed Questions 2. Describe Cloud Concepts 3. Describe Core Azure Services 4. Describe core solutions and management tools on Azure 5. Describe general security and network security features 6. Describe identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features 7. Describe Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements
Want to test your exam readiness for the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certificate (AZ 900) to gain the confidence to pass your certification exam? Then these ultimate sets of practice exams are for you!
Updated questions as per actual exam format Single Select option – Select one option from the provided options Multiple Select options – Select multiple options from the provided options Dropdown select – This question requires you to select the correct option from the dropdown Correct the Statement – Validate if the option provided in the statement is correct, if not, select the correct option from the provided options Drag n Drop – This question requires you to drag the appropriate term from the column on the left to its description on the right For all questions, I have updated the explanations with more details, diagrams, and links to improve your learning experience.
Published AZ-900 practice course with 4 Sets of practice tests Azure Fundamentals exam is an opportunity to prove knowledge of cloud concepts, Azure services, Azure workloads, security and privacy in Azure, as well as Azure pricing and support. Candidates should be familiar with the general technology concepts, including concepts of networking, storage, compute, application support, and application development.
AZ-900 Exam will measure your skills based on the following four skills Cloud Concepts (20-25%) Core Azure Services (15-20%) Core solutions and management tools on Azure (10-15%) General security and network security features (10-15%) Identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features (20-25%) Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements (10-15%)
Balanced number of random questions to cover each category
Questions are as per actual exam format including single select, multi-select, drop down, yes/no, drag-n-drop & correct statement.
A detailed explanation of each correct and incorrect answer
Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
Languages: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Spanish, German,
French, Indonesian (Indonesia), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Chinese (Traditional),
Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian
Retirement date: none
This exam measures your ability to describe the following concepts: cloud
concepts; core Azure services; core solutions and management tools on Azure;
general security and network security features; identity, governance, privacy,
and compliance features; and Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements.
Skills measured The content of this exam was updated on November 9, 2020. Please download
the exam skills outline below to see what changed.
Describe cloud concepts (20-25%)
Describe core Azure services (15-20%)
Describe core solutions and management tools on Azure (10-15%)
Describe general security and network security features (10-15%)
Describe identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features (20-25%)
Describe Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements (10-15%)
This exam was updated on November 9, 2020. Following
the current exam guide, we have included a version of the exam guide with Track
Changes set to “On,” showing the changes that were made to the exam on that
date.
Skills measured:
NOTE: The bullets that appear below each of the skills measured are intended to
illustrate how we are assessing that skill. This list is not definitive or
exhaustive.
NOTE: Most questions cover features that are General Availability (GA). The exam
may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.
The content of this exam was updated on November 9, 2020.
Please download the exam skills outline below to see what changed.
Skills measured NOTE: The bullets that appear below each of the skills measured are intended
to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. This list is not definitive or
exhaustive.
NOTE: Most questions cover features that are General Availability (GA). The exam
may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.
Describe Cloud Concepts (15-2020-25%) Identify
Describe the benefits and considerations of using cloud services identify the benefits of cloud computing,
Describe terms such as High
Availability,
Scalability, Elasticity, Agility, Fault Tolerance,
and Disaster Recovery
describe the principles of economies of scale
describeIdentify the
differences between Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and Operational
Expenditure (OpEx)
describe the consumption-based model
Describe the differences between categories of cloud
servicesInfrastructure-as-a-Service
(IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) describe the shared responsibility model
describe Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS),
describe Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) describe serverless computing
describe Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) identify a service type based on a use case compare and contrast the three different service
types
Describe the differences between types of cloud
computingPublic, Private and Hybrid cloud models
define cloud computing
describe Public cloud
describe Private cloud
describe Hybrid cloud
compare and contrast the three types of cloud computingdifferent cloud models
Describe Core Azure Services (30-35
15-20%)
Describe the core Azure architectural components
describe the benefits and usage of Regions
and Region Pairs
describe the benefits and usage of
Availability Zones
describe the benefits and usage of
Resource Groups
describe the benefits and usage of Subscriptions
describe the benefits and usage of Management Groups
describe the benefits and usage of Azure
Resource Manager
explain Azure resources
describe the benefits and usage of core Azure
architectural components
Describe some of the core
resourcesproducts
available in Azure
describe the benefits and usage ofproducts available for Compute such as
Virtual
Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets,
Azure App Services, Azure Container Instances
(ACI), and Azure Kubernetes
Service (AKS), and Windows Virtual Desktop
describe the benefits and usage of
products available for Networking such as
Virtual
Networks, Load Balancer, VPN
Gateway, Virtual Network peering, and ExpressRouteApplication Gateway and Content Delivery Network
describe the benefits and usage of products available for Storage such asContainer
(Blob) Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, and storage
tiersArchive Storage
describe the benefits and usage of
products available for Databases such as Cosmos DB,
Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL,
and SQL Managed Instance Azure Database
Migration service
describe the benefits and usage of the
Azure Marketplace and its usage scenarios
Describe core solutions and management tools on
Azure (10-15%) Describe some of thecore
solutions available inon
Azure
describe the benefits and usage of
Internet of Things (IoT) Hub, IoT Central, and Azure
Sphereand products that are available
for IoT on Azure such as IoT Hub and IoT Central
describe the benefits and usage of
Big Data and Analytics and products that are available for
Big Data and Analytics such as Azure Synapse Analytics,
HDInsight, and Azure Databricks
describe the benefits and usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and products that are
available for AI such as Azure Machine Learning,
Cognitive Services and
Azure BotServiceStudio
describe the benefits and usage of Sserverless
computing solutions that includeand
Azure products that are available for serverless computing such as
Azure Functions ,and Logic Apps
and Event Grid
describe the benefits and usage of DevOps solutions available on Azure such as
Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitHub Actions, and
Azure DevTest Labs describe the benefits and outcomes of using
Azure solutions
Describe Azure management tools
describe the functionality and usage of the
Azure tools such as Azure
Portal, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, and
Cloud Shell, and Azure Mobile App
describe the functionality and usage of
Azure Advisor
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Monitor
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Service Health
Describe Security, Privacy, Compliance, and Trust (25-30%)
Describe securing network connectivity in Azure
describe Network Security Groups (NSG)
describe Application Security Groups (ASG)
describe User Defined Rules (UDR)
describe Azure Firewall
describe Azure DDoS Protection
choose an appropriate Azure security solution
Describe core Azure Identity services
describe the difference between authentication and authorization
describe Azure Active Directory
describe Azure Multi-Factor Authentication
Describe security tools and features of Azure describe Azure Security Center
describe Azure Security Center usage scenarios
describe Key Vault
describe Azure Information Protection (AIP)
describe Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
Describe monitoring and reporting options in
Azure
describe Azure Monitor
describe Azure Service Health
describe the use cases and benefits of Azure Monitor and Azure Service Health
Describe privacy, compliance and data
protection standards in Azure
describe industry compliance terms such as GDPR, ISO and NIST
describe the Microsoft Privacy Statement
describe the Trust center
describe the Service Trust Portal
describe Compliance Manager
determine if Azure is compliant for a business need
describe Azure Government cloud services
describe Azure China cloud services
Describe general security and network security
features (10-15%)
Describe Azure security features
describe basic features of Azure Security Center, including policy compliance,
security alerts, secure score, and resource hygiene
describe the functionality and usage of Key Vault
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Sentinel
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Dedicated Hosts
Describe Azure network security describe the concept of defense in depth
describe the functionality and usage of Network Security Groups (NSG)
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Firewall
describe the functionality and usage of Azure DDoS protection
Describe identity, governance, privacy, and
compliance features (20- 25%)
escribe core Azure identity services
explain the difference between authentication and authorization
define Azure Active Directory
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Active Directory
describe the functionality and usage of Conditional Access, Multi-Factor
Authentication
(MFA), and Single Sign-On (SSO) Describe Azure governance features
describe the functionality and usage of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
describe the functionality and usage of resource locks
describe the functionality and usage of tags
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Policy
describe the functionality and usage of Azure Blueprints
describe the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
Describe privacy and compliance resources
describe the Microsoft core tenets of Security, Privacy, and Compliance
d escribe the purpose of the Microsoft Privacy Statement, Online
Services Terms (OST)Product Terms site, and Data Protection
AmendmentAddendum (DPA)
describe the purpose of the Trust Center
describe the purpose of the Azure compliance documentation
describe the purpose of Azure Sovereign Regions (Azure Government cloud
services and Azure China cloud services)
Describe Azure cost management andPricing,
Service Level Agreements, and Lifecycles
(20-25
10-15%) Describe Azure subscriptions describe an Azure Subscription
describe the uses and options with Azure subscriptions such access control and
offer types
describe subscription management using Management groups
Describe methods for planning and
managinggement of costs describe options for purchasing Azure products
and services
describe options around Azure Free account describe theIdentify factors
that can affect costs affecting costs such as
(resource types, services, locations, ingress and egress traffic) identify factors that can reduce costs (reserved
instances, reserved capacity, hybrid use benefit, spot pricing) describe Zones for billing purposes
describe the Pricing calculator
describe the functionality and usage of the Pricing
calculator and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator describe best practices for minimizing Azure
costs such as performing cost analysis, creating spending limits and quotas,
using tags to identify cost owners, using Azure reservations and using Azure
Advisor recommendations
describe the functionality and usage of
Azure Cost Management
Describe Azure Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and
service lifecycles
describe the
purpose of an Azure Service
Level Agreement (SLA) identify actions that can impact an SLA (i.e.
Availability Zones)
describe the service lifecycle in Azure (Public Preview and General
Availability) describe Composite SLAs
describe how to determine an appropriate SLA for an application Describe service lifecycle in Azure describe Public and Private Preview features
describe the term General Availability (GA)
describe how to monitor feature updates and product changes
QUESTION 1 You have an on-premises network that contains several servers.
You plan to migrate all the servers to Azure.
You need to recommend a solution to ensure that some of the servers are
available if a single Azure data center goes offline for an extended period.
What should you include in the recommendation?
A. fault tolerance
B. elasticity
C. scalability
D. low latency
Correct Answer: A
QUESTION 2 You need to be notified when Microsoft plans to perform maintenance that can
affect the resources deployed to an Azure subscription.
What should you use?
A. Azure Monitor
B. Azure Service Health
C. Azure Advisor
D. Microsoft Trust Center
Correct Answer: B
QUESTION 3 Which Azure service provides a set of version control tools to manage code?
A. Azure Repos
B. Azure DevTest Labs
C. Azure Storage
D. Azure Cosmos DB
Correct Answer: A
QUESTION 4 You have a virtual machine named VM1 that runs Windows Server 2016. VM1 is
in the East US Azure region.
Which Azure service should you use from the Azure portal to view service failure
notifications that can affect the availability of VM1?
A. Azure Service Fabric
B. Azure Monitor
C. Azure virtual machines
D. Azure Advisor
Correct Answer: C
QUESTION 5 A team of developers at your company plans to deploy, and then remove, 50
virtual machines each week. All the virtual machines are configured by using
Azure Resource Manager templates.
You need to recommend which Azure service will minimize the administrative
effort required to deploy and remove the virtual machines.
What should you recommend?
A. Azure Reserved Virtual Machine (VM) Instances
B. Azure DevTest Labs
C. Azure virtual machine scale sets
D. Microsoft Managed Desktop
The content of this exam was updated on May 25, 2021. Please download the
skills measured document below to see what changed.
Languages: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean
Retirement date: none
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks:
develop an instrumentation strategy; develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
strategy; develop a security and compliance plan; manage source control;
facilitate communication and collaboration; define and implement continuous
integration; and define and implement a continuous delivery and release
management strategy.
Skills measured The content of this exam was updated on May 25, 2021. Please download the
exam skills outline below to see what changed.
Develop an instrumentation strategy (5-10%)
Develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy (5-10%)
Develop a security and compliance plan (10-15%)
Manage source control (10-15%)
Facilitate communication and collaboration (10-15%)
Define and implement continuous integration (20-25%)
Define and implement a continuous delivery and release management strategy
(10-15%)
Audience Profile Candidates for this exam should have subject matter expertise working with
people, processes, and technologies to continuously deliver business value.
Responsibilities for this role include designing and implementing strategies for
collaboration, code, infrastructure, source control, security, compliance,
continuous integration, testing, delivery, monitoring, and feedback.
A candidate for this exam must be familiar with both Azure administration and
development and must be expert in at least one of these areas.
Skills Measured NOTE: The bullets that appear below each of the skills measured are intended
to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. This list is NOT definitive or
exhaustive.
NOTE: Most questions cover features that are General Availability (GA). The exam
may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.
Develop an Instrumentation Strategy (5-10%) Design and implement logging
assess and configure a log framework
design a log aggregation and storage strategy (e.g., Azure storage)
design a log aggregation and query strategy
using (e.g., Azure Monitor, Splunk)
manage access control to logs (workspace-centric/resource-centric)
integrate crash analytics (App Center Crashes, Crashlytics)
Design and implement telemetry
design and implement distributed tracing
inspect application performance indicators
inspect infrastructure performance indicators
define and measure key metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network)
implement alerts on key metrics (email, SMS, webhooks, Teams/Slack)
integrate user analytics (e.g., Application Insights funnels, Visual Studio
App Center, TestFlight, Google Analytics)
Integrate logging and monitoring solutions configure and integrate container monitoring (Azure Monitor, Prometheus,
etc.)
configure and integrate with monitoring tools (Azure Monitor Application
Insights, Dynatrace, New Relic, Naggios, Zabbix) create feedback loop from platform monitoring tools (e.g., Azure
Diagnostics extension, Log Analytics agent, Azure Platform Logs, Event Grid)
manage Access control to the monitoring platform
Develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy (5-10%)
Develop an actionable alerting strategy identify and recommend metrics on which to base alerts
implement alerts using appropriate metrics
implement alerts based on appropriate log messages
implement alerts based on application health checks
analyze combinations of metrics
develop communication mechanism to notify users of degraded systems
implement alerts for self-healing activities (e.g., scaling, failovers)
Design a failure prediction strategy
analyze behavior of system with regards to load and failure conditions
calculate when a system will fail under various conditions
measure baseline metrics for system
leverage Application Insights Smart Detection and Dynamic thresholds in Azure
Monitor
Design and implement a health check analyze system dependencies to determine which dependency should be
included in health check
calculate healthy response timeouts based on SLO for the service
design approach for partial health situations
design approach for piecemeal recovery (e.g., to improve recovery time
objective strategies)
integrate health check with compute environment
implement different types of health checks (container liveness, startup,
shutdown)
Develop a security and compliance plan (10-15%) Design an authentication and authorization strategy
design an access solution (Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM),
Azure AD Conditional Access, MFA, Azure AD B2B, etc.)
implement Service Principals and Managed Identity design an application access solution using Azure AD
B2C
configure service connections
Design a sensitive information management strategy
evaluate and configure vault solution (Azure Key Vault, Hashicorp Vault)
manage security certificates
design a secrets storage and retrieval strategy (KeyVault secrets, GitHub
secrets, Azure Pipelines secrets)
formulate a plan for deploying secret files as part of a release
Develop security and compliance
automate dependencies scanning for security (container scanning, OWASP)
automate dependencies scanning for compliance (licenses: MIT, GPL)
assess and report risks
design a source code compliance solution (e.g., GitHub Code scanning, GitHub
Secret scanning, pipeline-based scans, Git hooks, SonarQube, Dependabot, etc.)
Design governance enforcement mechanisms implement Azure policies to enforce organizational requirements
implement container scanning (e.g., static scanning, malware, crypto mining)
design and implement Azure Container Registry Tasks
design break-the-glass strategy for responding to security incidents
Manage source control (10-15%) Develop a modern source control strategy
integrate/migrate disparate source control systems (e.g., GitHub, Azure Repos)
design authentication strategies
design approach for managing large binary files (e.g., Git LFS)
design approach for cross repository sharing (e.g., Git sub-modules, packages)
implement workflow hooks
design approach for efficient code reviews (e.g., GitHub code review
assignments, schedule reminders, Pull Analytics)
Plan and implement branching strategies for the source code define Pull Requests (PR) guidelines to enforce work item correlation
implement branch merging restrictions (e.g., branch policies, branch
protections, manual, etc.)
define branch strategy (e.g., trunk based, feature branch, release branch,
GitHub flow)
design and implement a PR workflow (code reviews, approvals)
enforce static code analysis for code-quality consistency on PR
Configure repositories configure permissions in the source control repository
organize the repository with git-tags
plan for handling oversized repositories
plan for content recovery in all repository states
purge data from source control
Integrate source control with tools
integrate GitHub with DevOps pipelines
integrate GitHub with identity management solutions (Azure AD)
design for GitOps
design for ChatOps
integrate source control artifacts for human consumption (e.g., Git changelog)
integrate GitHub Codespaces
Facilitate communication and collaboration (10-15%) Communicate deployment and release information with business stakeholders
create dashboards combining boards, pipelines (custom dashboards on Azure
DevOps)
design a cost management communication strategy
integrate release pipeline with work item tracking (e.g., AZ DevOps, Jira,
ServiceNow)
integrate GitHub as repository with Azure Boards
communicate user analytics
Generate DevOps process documentation
design onboarding process for new employees
assess and document external dependencies (e.g., integrations, packages)
assess and document artifacts (version, release notes)
Automate communication with team members
integrate monitoring tools with communication platforms (e.g., Teams, Slack,
dashboards)
notify stakeholders about key metrics, alerts, severity using communication
and project management platforms (e.g., Email, SMS, Slack, Teams, ServiceNow,
etc.)
integrate build and release with communication platforms (e.g., build fails,
release fails)
integrate GitHub pull request approvals via mobile apps
Design a package management strategy
recommend package management tools (e.g., GitHub Packages, Azure Artifacts,
Azure Automation Runbooks Gallery, Nuget, Jfrog, Artifactory)
design an Azure Artifacts implementation including linked feeds
design versioning strategy for code assets (e.g., SemVer, date based)
plan for assessing and updating and reporting package dependencies (GitHub
Automated Security Updates, NuKeeper, GreenKeeper) design a versioning strategy for packages (e.g., SemVer, date based)
design a versioning strategy for deployment artifacts Design an application
infrastructure management strategy
assess a configuration management mechanism for application infrastructure
define and enforce desired state configuration for environments Implement a
build strategy
design and implement build agent infrastructure (include cost, tool selection,
licenses, maintainability)
develop and implement build trigger rules
develop build pipelines
design build orchestration (products that are composed of multiple builds)
integrate configuration into build process
develop complex build scenarios (e.g., containerized agents, hybrid, GPU)
Maintain build strategy
monitor pipeline health (failure rate, duration, flaky tests)
optimize build (cost, time, performance, reliability)
analyze CI load to determine build agent configuration and capacity
Design a process for standardizing builds across organization manage self-hosted build agents (VM templates, containerization, etc.)
create reuseable build subsystems (YAML templates, Task Groups, Variable
Groups, etc.)
Define and implement a continuous delivery and release management strategy
(10-15%)
Develop deployment scripts and templates recommend a deployment solution (e.g., GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines,
Jenkins, CircleCI, etc.)
design and implement Infrastructure as code (ARM, Terraform, PowerShell, CLI)
develop application deployment process (container, binary, scripts)
develop database deployment process (migrations, data movement, ETL)
integrate configuration management as part of the release process
develop complex deployments (IoT, Azure IoT Edge, mobile, App Center, DR,
multiregion, CDN, sovereign cloud, Azure Stack, etc.)
Implement an orchestration automation solution combine release targets depending on release deliverable (e.g.,
Infrastructure, code, assets, etc.)
design the release pipeline to ensure reliable order of dependency deployments
organize shared release configurations and process (YAML templates, variable
groups, Azure App Configuration)
design and implement release gates and approval processes
Plan the deployment environment strategy design a release strategy (blue/green, canary, ring)
implement the release strategy (using deployment slots, load balancer
configurations, Azure Traffic Manager, feature toggle, etc.)
select the appropriate desired state solution for a deployment environment (PowerShell
DSC, Chef, Puppet, etc.)
plan for minimizing downtime during deployments (VIP Swap, Load balancer,
rolling deployments, etc.)
design a hotfix path plan for responding to high priority code fixes
QUESTION 1 You manage an Azure web app that supports an e-commerce website.
You need to increase the logging level when the web app exceeds normal usage
patterns. The solution must minimize administrative overhead.
Which two resources should you include in the solution? Each correct answer
presents part of the solution.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
A. an Azure Automation runbook
B. an Azure Monitor alert that has a dynamic threshold
C. an Azure Monitor alert that has a static threshold
D. the Azure Monitor autoscale settings
E. an Azure Monitor alert that uses an action group that has an email action
Correct Answer: AB
QUESTION 2 You have a build pipeline in Azure Pipelines that occasionally fails.
You discover that a test measuring the response time of an API endpoint causes
the failures.
You need to prevent the build pipeline from failing due to the test.
Which two actions should you perform? Each correct answer presents part of the
solution.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
A. Set Flaky test detection to Off.
B. Clear Flaky tests included in test pass percentage.
C. Enable Test Impact Analysis (TIA).
D. Manually mark the test as flaky.
E. Enable test slicing.
Correct Answer: BD
QUESTION 3 You have a GitHub repository.
You create a new repository in Azure DevOps.
You need to recommend a procedure to clone the repository from GitHub to Azure
DevOps.
What should you recommend?
A. Create a pull request.
B. Create a webhook.
C. Create a service connection for GitHub.
D. From Import a Git repository, click Import.
E. Create a personal access token in Azure DevOps.
Correct Answer: D
QUESTION 4 Note: This question is part of a series of questions that present the same
scenario. Each question in
the series contains a unique solution that might meet the stated goals. Some
question sets might have
more than one correct solution, while others might not have a correct solution.
After you answer a question in this section, you will NOT be able to return to
it. As a result, these
questions will not appear in the review screen.
You use Azure Pipelines to build and test a React.js application.
You have a pipeline that has a single job.
You discover that installing JavaScript packages from npm takes approximately
five minutes each time you run the pipeline.
You need to recommend a solution to reduce the pipeline execution time.
Solution: You recommend defining a container job that uses a custom container
that has the JavaScript
packages preinstalled.
Does this meet the goal?
A. Yes
B. No
Correct Answer: B
QUESTION 5 Your company uses Azure Artifacts for package management.
You need to configure an upstream source in Azure Artifacts for Python packages.
Which repository type should you use as an upstream source?
A. npmjs.org
B. PyPI
C. Maven Central
D. third-party trusted Python
Correct Answer: B
QUESTION 6 You have an Azure DevOps project that contains a release pipeline and a Git
repository.
When a new code revision is committed to the repository, a build and release is
triggered.
You need to ensure that release information for the pipeline is added
automatically to the work items associated to the Git commit.
What should you do?
A. Modify the Integrations options for the pipeline.
B. Modify the post-deployment conditions for the last stage of the pipeline.
C. Add an agentless job to the pipeline.
D. Modify the service hooks for the project.
Microsoft must be in a mood to rename things this month. First, the company re-branded its small and medium business advertising site and eliminated Windows Live branding. Now it’s moved on to Azure. Will any of these changes have a positive impact on revenue or just result in confused customers?
Rebranding Azure for Billing Reports
Microsoft has sent a message to Windows Azure users that it is rebranding its cloud services. “Azure” will no longer appear on the billing site and many of the cloud offerings will get slightly modified names. For example, SQL Azure is becoming SQL Database and Azure Compute will now be Cloud Services. Although the change is imminent, it’s unclear if the rebranding will be isolated to billing and usage records or if will apply to the brand as a whole.
Microsoft hasn’t released an official statement explaining its rebranding actions. However, the move may be designed to blur the distinction between on premises and cloud-based solutions. The company has long been committed to having both a premises and cloud versions of its products. In 2009, Microsoft combined the Windows Server and Azure teams.
Microsoft doesn’t want customers to worry about moving between locally deployed and cloud-based solutions. The company wants to create an ecosystem where customers can mix deployment options and easily move between environments.
In addition to the name changes, Microsoft also updated the Azure privacy policy. The policy doesn’t include any additional restrictions or protections. According to the company, the change only added more details for clarification.
What This Means
The cloud market is continuing to mature and has grown more competitive. Microsoft seems to be positioning itself as a one-stop-shop for business computing. The company has offerings at every level of the cloud stack from infrastructure-as-a-service to software-as-a-service.
However, the company isn’t stopping with the cloud; Microsoft is also supporting every deployment strategy from traditional on premises installs to the public cloud. The approach will likely be attractive to organizations that don’t want to invest time and resources into integrating best of breed solutions from multiple vendors.