Microsoft AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solution Exam Dumps and Practice Test Questions Set 13 Q181-195

Visit here for our full Microsoft AZ-305 exam dumps and practice test questions.

Question 181

You need to design a secure method for storing secrets for an Azure App Service. The solution must support automatic key rotation and allow the app to retrieve secrets without storing credentials. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Key Vault with Managed Identity
B) Azure Storage Account with SAS token
C) Azure App Configuration
D) Azure Automation

Answer: A) Azure Key Vault with Managed Identity

Explanation:

Azure Key Vault with Managed Identity provides a secure method for storing and retrieving sensitive information such as keys, passwords, and certificates. A system-assigned or user-assigned managed identity allows an application to authenticate to Key Vault without storing credentials, reducing attack surfaces and eliminating hardcoded secrets. Key Vault also supports automatic rotation for stored keys and certificates, ensuring strong security hygiene and reducing administrative tasks. By combining these capabilities, an App Service can securely and automatically access secrets using identity-based authentication.

Azure Storage with SAS tokens provides time-limited and permission-controlled access to storage resources. While SAS is useful for secure file sharing, it does not support automatic key rotation for secrets nor integrate natively with Managed Identities for secret retrieval. It also increases risk because tokens can be exposed if not protected properly.

Azure App Configuration stores configuration data such as feature flags and non-sensitive application settings. Although it integrates with Key Vault references, it is not designed for storing confidential secrets by itself and does not handle secret rotation. It works best as a complement to Key Vault, not a replacement.

Azure Automation is designed for running runbooks, performing scheduled tasks, and managing configuration through DSC. It can store credentials in its credential store but does not provide the robust secret lifecycle management, rotation, or identity-based retrieval required for secure application scenarios.

Azure Key Vault with Managed Identity is best because it provides end-to-end secure secret access, supports automatic rotation, eliminates credential storage, and integrates natively with App Service authentication flows.

Question 182

You need a solution to ensure Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) nodes automatically scale based on CPU and memory demands. The solution must minimize cost by removing nodes during low-usage periods. What should you use?

A) Cluster Autoscaler
B) Horizontal Pod Autoscaler
C) Virtual Node
D) Azure Load Balancer

Answer: A) Cluster Autoscaler

Explanation:

Cluster Autoscaler adjusts the number of nodes in an AKS cluster based on resource requirements. When workloads require more compute resources, new nodes are added. When workloads decrease, unused nodes are removed to reduce cost. It responds to insufficient compute capacity by monitoring pending pods that cannot be scheduled due to resource shortage. By scaling node pools dynamically, it ensures efficient resource use and cost-optimized operation, especially for production workloads with variable traffic.

Horizontal Pod Autoscaler adjusts the number of pods within existing nodes but does not add or remove nodes. While useful for scaling application workloads, it cannot address insufficient node compute resources and therefore cannot reduce infrastructure costs during low demand.

Virtual Node integrates Azure Container Instances with AKS to instantly run pods without provisioning nodes. Although this improves elasticity, it does not provide true node scaling, and ACI instances may increase cost due to per-second billing.

Azure Load Balancer distributes traffic but plays no role in node or pod scaling. It simply balances requests across nodes and cannot evaluate compute metrics or increase cluster capacity.

Cluster Autoscaler is the correct solution because it handles automatic scaling of nodes, ensures high availability, and minimizes costs by removing underutilized nodes.

Question 183

You need to design a solution to provide secure, private access from Azure Virtual Machines to an Azure Storage Account without requiring public internet exposure. Which feature should you use?

A) Private Endpoint
B) Service Endpoint
C) VPN Gateway
D) Application Gateway

Answer: A) Private Endpoint

Explanation:

A Private Endpoint provides a network interface within a virtual network that connects privately to Azure services such as Storage. The service becomes available over a private IP address within the virtual network, removing the need for public exposure. Traffic remains on the Azure backbone network, significantly improving security and minimizing risks associated with public access. It also allows granular network access control using Network Security Groups and integrates well with hybrid networks.

A Service Endpoint enables private access but still exposes the service with a public IP address. While traffic routes through Azure’s backbone network, the service’s public endpoint remains accessible unless explicitly restricted. It lacks the capability to fully eliminate public exposure and does not support granular network-level access as effectively as a Private Endpoint.

A VPN Gateway provides secure site-to-site or point-to-site connections, but it does not grant private access to specific Azure services. It secures connectivity between networks but does not replace the need for private access features such as Private Endpoints.

An Application Gateway is a Layer 7 load balancer used for web traffic routing, WAF protection, and SSL termination. It is not designed to provide private network access to Azure Storage and does not eliminate public endpoints for PaaS services.

Private Endpoint is correct because it provides secure, private, network-isolated access to Azure Storage without requiring a public endpoint, ensuring maximum protection and compliance.

Question 184

You need to design a high-availability architecture for a three-tier application running on Virtual Machine Scale Sets. The solution must ensure distribution of traffic across regions. What should you use?

A) Azure Front Door
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Traffic Manager
D) Application Gateway

Answer: A) Azure Front Door

Explanation:

Azure Front Door is a global Layer 7 load balancer designed to distribute traffic across multiple regions. It routes users to the closest available backend using intelligent routing, improving performance and ensuring resiliency against regional outages. Its health probes ensure that if one region becomes unavailable, traffic is redirected automatically to another region hosting the application. Additional features include caching, SSL offload, Web Application Firewall, and traffic acceleration. These capabilities make it ideal for fronting multi-region multi-tier applications.

Azure Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 and is region-specific. It cannot distribute traffic across multiple geographic regions or provide global failover capabilities. It is typically used for internal or regional high-availability scenarios.

Azure Traffic Manager uses DNS-based routing to distribute traffic across regions. While it enables global routing, it does not provide Layer 7 features, SSL termination, or dynamic path acceleration. DNS propagation delays can also affect failover times.

Application Gateway is a Layer 7 load balancer with WAF support but works only within a single region. It cannot distribute traffic globally or front multiple region deployments.

Azure Front Door is correct because it delivers global distribution, low-latency routing, intelligent failover, and multi-region high availability.

Question 185

You need to design a backup solution for Azure Files that meets long-term retention requirements. What should you recommend?

A) Azure Backup for Azure Files
B) Soft Delete
C) Azure Site Recovery
D) Azure Storage Lifecycle Policies

Answer: A) Azure Backup for Azure Files

Explanation:

Azure Backup for Azure Files provides snapshot-based backups with configurable retention policies, long-term retention, and centralized backup management. It supports point-in-time restore, ransomware protection, and built-in data integrity checks. Backups are stored in a Recovery Services vault, offering isolation from the operational file share. This approach meets long-term retention requirements for compliance and regulatory purposes while simplifying administration.

Soft Delete protects against accidental deletion but does not provide long-term retention, versioning, or full backup features. It only retains deleted items temporarily and is not suitable for compliance scenarios.

Azure Site Recovery provides disaster recovery rather than backup. It replicates data for failover scenarios but does not offer long-term retention capabilities.

Azure Storage Lifecycle Policies manage blob tiering and retention but do not apply to Azure Files. They also do not offer the consistency, recovery capabilities, or protection that a backup system provides.

Azure Backup for Azure Files is correct because it provides enterprise-grade backup, protection, restore, and long-term retention for Azure Files.

Question 186

You need to design secure access for developers managing Azure resources, ensuring that the permissions they receive expire automatically. What should you use?

A) Azure AD Privileged Identity Management
B) Azure RBAC
C) Azure Policy
D) Azure Blueprints

Answer: A) Azure AD Privileged Identity Management

Explanation:

Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM) provides just-in-time access to privileged roles. It requires administrators or developers to activate a role for a limited time, ensuring the permissions automatically expire. PIM supports approval workflows, MFA enforcement, audit logging, and access reviews, making it an ideal tool for securing administrative access while reducing the risk of standing permissions.

Azure RBAC provides role-based access control but does not implement expiring permissions or just-in-time elevation by itself. It assigns roles permanently until modified manually.

Azure Policy enforces configuration compliance but cannot control privileged access lifetimes. It applies rules to resources but does not manage identity lifecycle or admin role duration.

Azure Blueprints deploy resource templates and governance settings but do not handle identity expiration or privileged role activation.

Azure AD PIM is correct because it provides time-limited, controlled, and auditable access to Azure resources.

Question 187

You need to design a solution that secures outbound traffic from an Azure VNet by limiting access only to approved FQDNs. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Firewall with FQDN filtering
B) Network Security Groups
C) Application Gateway
D) Azure DDoS Protection

Answer: A) Azure Firewall with FQDN filteringExplanation:

 Azure Firewall supports outbound traffic filtering using fully qualified domain names (FQDNs). It ensures only predefined domains can be accessed by resources inside the VNet. This helps control web access, restrict data exfiltration, and enforce compliance by limiting communication to known safe destinations. Azure Firewall also provides logging, threat intelligence filtering, and central policy management.

Network Security Groups allow port and protocol filtering but cannot filter based on domain names. They operate at Layer 4 rather than Layer 7.

Application Gateway handles inbound web traffic and provides WAF protection but does not manage outbound access or domain-based restrictions.

Azure DDoS Protection mitigates distributed denial-of-service attacks but does not control outbound connectivity.

Azure Firewall with FQDN filtering is correct because it provides domain-based outbound restrictions.

Question 188

You need to design a zero-trust architecture for an Azure environment that requires inspection and filtering of both inbound and outbound traffic. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Firewall Premium
B) Azure Load Balancer
C) Azure Bastion
D) NSG Flow Logs

Answer: A) Azure Firewall Premium

Explanation:

Azure Firewall Premium is an advanced cloud-native security service in Microsoft Azure designed to provide comprehensive threat protection for enterprise networks. It extends the capabilities of the standard Azure Firewall by incorporating sophisticated features such as TLS inspection, intrusion detection and prevention, URL filtering, and deep packet inspection. These capabilities allow organizations to enforce zero-trust principles across both inbound and outbound traffic, ensuring that only authorized, safe, and compliant network communications are permitted. By providing visibility and control over all network traffic, Azure Firewall Premium helps organizations safeguard their cloud environments against modern cyber threats while maintaining operational efficiency.

One of the key features of Azure Firewall Premium is TLS inspection, which allows the firewall to decrypt, inspect, and re-encrypt secure HTTPS traffic. This enables organizations to detect and block malicious content or threats that may be hidden within encrypted traffic, a common challenge in modern network security. Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) built into the firewall provide real-time monitoring and automatic blocking of suspicious activity, protecting workloads from potential attacks such as malware, ransomware, or network exploitation attempts. URL filtering further enhances security by controlling access to web destinations based on organizational policies, helping to prevent users or applications from accessing malicious or non-compliant websites.

Deep packet inspection in Azure Firewall Premium allows for detailed examination of network traffic at the application level, providing fine-grained control over what is permitted or denied. This capability is critical for zero-trust architectures, where no traffic is implicitly trusted, and every communication is validated against security policies. Integration with Azure Policy allows administrators to implement centralized governance across multiple subscriptions or resource groups, ensuring consistent enforcement of security controls. Traffic analytics and logging capabilities provide visibility into network activity, supporting monitoring, auditing, and compliance requirements.

In contrast, other Azure services do not provide the same level of traffic inspection or zero-trust enforcement. Azure Load Balancer, for instance, is designed to distribute network traffic across multiple virtual machines or instances to improve availability and performance. While it is critical for scalability and redundancy, it operates at Layer 4 and does not perform deep inspection, filtering, or threat prevention. Azure Bastion secures remote virtual machine access by providing browser-based RDP and SSH access through the Azure Portal, but it does not inspect network traffic or enforce security policies beyond access control. Network Security Group (NSG) Flow Logs provide visibility into traffic flows for monitoring purposes but do not actively filter, inspect, or remediate threats, meaning they cannot enforce a zero-trust policy on their own.

Overall, Azure Firewall Premium is the ideal solution for organizations seeking to implement a zero-trust security model in Azure. Its combination of deep packet inspection, TLS decryption, IDPS, URL filtering, centralized governance, and traffic analytics ensures that all network traffic is scrutinized and controlled according to policy. Other services such as Load Balancer, Bastion, and NSG logs complement network operations and monitoring but do not offer the proactive inspection and enforcement capabilities required for comprehensive zero-trust security. By deploying Azure Firewall Premium, organizations can protect critical workloads, reduce the risk of breaches, and maintain compliance with internal and regulatory security standards.

Question 189

You need to design an identity strategy for an application that requires granting external users access to Azure resources without creating local accounts. What should you recommend?

A) Azure AD B2B Collaboration
B) Azure AD B2C
C) Managed Identity
D) Azure AD DS

Answer: A) Azure AD B2B Collaboration

Explanation:

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) offers a range of identity and access management solutions tailored to different scenarios, and understanding the distinctions between these offerings is crucial for effectively managing access to resources. One specific feature, Azure AD B2B Collaboration, provides a streamlined and secure method for granting external users access to an organization’s Azure resources. This functionality allows external partners, vendors, or contractors to authenticate using their existing credentials from their home organization, eliminating the need to create and maintain separate accounts within the host organization. By leveraging the guest user concept, organizations can provide the necessary access to resources while maintaining strict control over permissions and security policies.

With Azure AD B2B Collaboration, organizations can invite external users to participate in internal projects or access specific applications and resources without compromising security. These guest users retain their credentials from their own identity provider, which means they log in using the systems they are already familiar with, and the host organization does not bear the administrative burden of managing additional usernames or passwords. Access is granted only to the resources that the host organization explicitly authorizes, reducing the risk of over-permission and potential data exposure. This approach improves security while also simplifying collaboration, as external users do not need to remember new login details or navigate additional authentication processes.

On the other hand, Azure AD B2C serves a different purpose. It is primarily designed for managing identities for consumer-facing applications and services. This means it is best suited for scenarios where an organization needs to authenticate customers or external clients who interact with public-facing apps, such as online retail platforms, subscription services, or mobile applications. While B2C provides extensive capabilities for handling millions of consumer identities and supports various authentication methods, it is not intended for managing access for business-to-business collaborations within an organization’s internal resources.

Managed identities are another identity feature offered by Azure AD but serve a distinct function. They are intended for applications or services to authenticate themselves to other Azure resources without needing to manage credentials explicitly. This is particularly useful for scenarios such as an application needing to access a database or a storage account securely. Managed identities do not facilitate granting access to human external users and therefore are not applicable in scenarios requiring collaboration with external partners or contractors.

Similarly, Azure AD Domain Services provides traditional domain-join capabilities for virtual machines and other resources within Azure, offering services like LDAP, Kerberos, and NTLM authentication. While it supports managing devices and users in a domain environment, it does not inherently offer the ability to securely manage external guest identities or provide B2B collaboration features. Its focus remains on internal enterprise scenarios rather than external user access management.

Azure AD B2B Collaboration is specifically designed to enable secure external access to an organization’s Azure resources without the need to create separate accounts. It allows guest users to authenticate using their home credentials while ensuring access is limited to what is explicitly authorized. Other Azure AD features, such as B2C, managed identities, and Azure AD Domain Services, serve distinct purposes but do not provide the combination of secure external collaboration and simplified identity management that B2B Collaboration offers. This makes Azure AD B2B Collaboration the appropriate choice for scenarios involving external partners or contractors accessing internal Azure resources.

Question 190

You need to design a solution that securely manages encryption keys for Azure Disk Encryption used by Virtual Machines. Which service should you use?

A) Azure Key Vault
B) Azure Storage Account
C) Azure App Configuration
D) Azure Backup

Answer: A) Azure Key Vault

Explanation:

Azure Key Vault is a specialized cloud service provided by Microsoft Azure that focuses on the secure storage, management, and control of cryptographic keys, secrets, and certificates. When it comes to Azure Disk Encryption, Key Vault plays a critical role in safeguarding the encryption keys that protect the data on virtual machine disks. By using Azure Key Vault, organizations can ensure that their disk encryption keys are stored in a secure, centralized location with strict access controls and auditing capabilities, which helps meet regulatory and compliance requirements while maintaining high levels of data security.

One of the primary benefits of Azure Key Vault is its ability to provide secure storage for encryption keys. Keys stored in Key Vault are protected using hardware security modules (HSMs) or software-based security measures, ensuring that sensitive cryptographic material is never exposed in plaintext. Access to these keys is tightly controlled through Azure Active Directory authentication and role-based access control, allowing administrators to define precisely who can use, manage, or retrieve keys. Additionally, Key Vault maintains detailed logging and auditing of all key access and operations, providing transparency and accountability, which is particularly important for organizations that must adhere to strict compliance standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS.

Azure Key Vault integrates seamlessly with Azure Disk Encryption, enabling organizations to use customer-managed keys for encrypting virtual machine disks. By using Key Vault to manage these keys, companies retain full control over the encryption process and key lifecycle. This includes creating, rotating, revoking, and auditing keys according to organizational policies. Using customer-managed keys ensures that only authorized users can decrypt sensitive data, adding an additional layer of security compared to platform-managed keys. Key Vault also allows automated key rotation and lifecycle management, reducing the administrative overhead and risk associated with manual key handling.

Other Azure services, while important for cloud operations, do not provide the same level of functionality for cryptographic key management. Azure Storage Accounts are designed to store blobs, files, and other data objects but are not equipped to manage sensitive encryption keys securely or provide lifecycle management features. Azure App Configuration is useful for managing configuration values and feature flags for applications but does not support the secure storage of cryptographic keys. Azure Backup offers protection for virtual machine data and other workloads, but it does not handle encryption key storage or management, meaning it cannot directly support customer-managed disk encryption in the same way Key Vault does.

Azure Key Vault is the most suitable solution for managing encryption keys for Azure Disk Encryption. It provides secure storage, access control, auditing, and automated lifecycle management, ensuring that sensitive keys are protected while meeting compliance requirements. Its native integration with Azure Disk Encryption allows organizations to implement customer-managed key solutions, maintain control over data protection, and reduce the risk of unauthorized access. Other services such as Storage Accounts, App Configuration, and Azure Backup do not provide these capabilities, making Azure Key Vault the definitive choice for secure key management in the Azure ecosystem.

Question 191

You need to design a global DNS solution that ensures the fastest response time for users accessing a multi-region application. What should you use?

A) Azure Traffic Manager
B) Azure Front Door
C) Azure Application Gateway
D) Azure Load Balancer

Answer: A) Azure Traffic Manager

Explanation:

Azure Traffic Manager is a cloud-based traffic distribution service offered by Microsoft Azure that enables organizations to optimize the performance and availability of their applications across multiple regions. Unlike traditional load balancers that operate within a single region, Traffic Manager uses a DNS-based routing approach to direct user requests to the most appropriate endpoint. This routing mechanism is highly beneficial for organizations that have applications deployed in different geographical locations, as it helps minimize latency, enhance user experience, and maintain high availability. By analyzing endpoint health and network performance, Traffic Manager can intelligently route traffic to ensure that users are always connected to the fastest or most responsive service instance available.

One of the primary advantages of Azure Traffic Manager is its ability to reduce latency for global users. When a user initiates a request, the service evaluates the location and performance of all available endpoints and resolves the DNS query to the one that will deliver the best response time. This ensures that users, whether they are located in Europe, Asia, or the Americas, experience optimal performance when interacting with the application. Beyond improving speed, this global routing capability also enhances reliability. If an endpoint becomes unavailable due to maintenance, network issues, or an unexpected outage, Traffic Manager can automatically redirect requests to another healthy endpoint, ensuring continuity of service without requiring any manual intervention.

Traffic Manager offers a variety of routing methods to accommodate different scenarios and business needs. Priority-based routing, for instance, ensures that traffic is sent to a primary endpoint first, with secondary endpoints used as backups in the event of failure. Weighted routing allows organizations to distribute traffic across multiple endpoints based on specified ratios, which is useful for load testing or gradual rollouts of new application versions. Geographic routing is another option that can direct users from specific regions to designated endpoints, supporting regulatory compliance or localized content delivery. These features make Traffic Manager extremely versatile and suitable for a wide range of deployment strategies.

In contrast, Azure Front Door also provides global load balancing and content acceleration but operates at Layer 7 of the OSI model. It is specifically designed for HTTP and HTTPS traffic and focuses on optimizing web application delivery, caching, and application-level routing. While it enhances performance for web traffic, it does not function as a DNS-based service, and therefore cannot route traffic for non-HTTP protocols or provide true DNS-level failover for all types of endpoints.

Other Azure solutions, such as Application Gateway and Load Balancer, serve more specialized roles. Application Gateway works at the regional level and primarily handles Layer 7 web traffic within a single region, making it unsuitable for global distribution scenarios. Load Balancer operates at Layer 4, providing high-performance regional load distribution for TCP and UDP traffic, but it does not address global DNS routing or optimize latency for geographically dispersed users.

Azure Traffic Manager is specifically designed to deliver global DNS-based routing, ensuring that users are directed to the fastest and most reliable endpoints regardless of their location. It enhances application performance, supports failover and redundancy, and provides flexible routing strategies such as priority, weighted, and geographic routing. Other Azure networking services, while valuable in their respective domains, do not provide the same level of global DNS performance optimization, making Traffic Manager the ideal choice for organizations seeking to deliver highly responsive and resilient applications to users worldwide.

Question 192

You need to implement automated compliance checks for Azure resources and ensure non-compliant resources can be automatically remediated. What should you use?

A) Azure Policy
B) Azure Monitor
C) Azure Advisor
D) Azure Blueprints

Answer: A) Azure Policy

Explanation:

Azure Policy is a governance tool within Microsoft Azure that helps organizations enforce compliance across their cloud environments by evaluating resources against defined rules and standards. It is designed to ensure that all resources, whether newly created or existing, meet organizational, regulatory, or security requirements. Azure Policy operates by continuously scanning resources to check for compliance with established rules, making it a proactive tool for maintaining governance at scale. This capability is essential for enterprises that need to uphold strict security or operational standards across large, complex cloud deployments.

One of the key strengths of Azure Policy is its ability to not only detect non-compliant resources but also remediate them automatically. Built-in or custom remediation tasks can be assigned to policies, allowing administrators to correct deviations from the desired state without manual intervention. For example, if a policy requires that all storage accounts must have secure transfer enabled, Azure Policy can detect accounts that do not meet this criterion and automatically apply the necessary configuration to bring them into compliance. This automated remediation capability reduces the risk of human error, ensures consistent application of rules, and saves valuable administrative time, particularly in environments with hundreds or thousands of resources.

Azure Policy also provides comprehensive compliance reporting and dashboards, which allow administrators to track the compliance status of their resources over time. These dashboards offer visibility into which resources are compliant, which are non-compliant, and which have been remediated, giving organizations a clear and up-to-date picture of their governance posture. This continuous monitoring ensures that compliance is maintained even as resources are created, modified, or decommissioned. Additionally, Azure Policy supports a wide range of policy definitions, from simple configuration checks to complex rules involving multiple resource types, enabling organizations to tailor governance to their specific needs.

Other Azure services, while valuable, do not offer the same level of continuous enforcement and automatic remediation. Azure Monitor, for instance, is primarily a monitoring and analytics service. It collects logs, metrics, and telemetry from resources, providing insights into performance and health, but it cannot modify or enforce configurations on resources. Azure Advisor delivers recommendations for best practices, cost optimization, and security improvements, yet it does not enforce compliance or automatically remediate issues. Azure Blueprints allows organizations to deploy a combination of templates, role assignments, and policies in a coordinated way, but it does not continuously monitor existing resources for compliance or enforce policy changes once deployment is complete.

Azure Policy is the most appropriate tool for organizations that need to ensure compliance across their Azure environments. It provides continuous evaluation of resources, automatic remediation of non-compliant configurations, and comprehensive reporting, making governance both efficient and effective. By implementing Azure Policy, organizations can enforce organizational standards consistently, maintain regulatory compliance, and reduce the operational burden of manual configuration management. Its ability to automatically remediate issues and provide continuous compliance tracking sets it apart from other Azure services, establishing it as the central solution for automated governance and policy enforcement in the cloud.

Question 193

You need to design a network architecture where only specific outbound connections to approved SaaS services are allowed for Azure resources. What should you use?

A) Azure Firewall with FQDN tags
B) Network Security Groups
C) Azure Front Door
D) Azure ExpressRoute

Answer: A) Azure Firewall with FQDN tags

Explanation:

Azure Firewall provides robust network security capabilities for organizations running workloads in Azure, and one of its key features is the use of fully qualified domain name (FQDN) tags to simplify outbound traffic filtering. FQDN tags are preconfigured groups of domain names that represent popular SaaS applications and cloud services, such as Microsoft 365, Azure DevOps, or other widely used services. By leveraging these tags, administrators can create rules that allow outbound connections to these services without having to manually specify individual domains or IP addresses. This approach significantly reduces administrative overhead and ensures that outbound traffic is restricted only to trusted and approved services, helping organizations maintain compliance and protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.

A critical benefit of FQDN tags is that Microsoft manages the underlying domains included in each tag. This means that as services evolve and their associated domains change, the firewall rules automatically continue to work without requiring manual updates from administrators. This dynamic management ensures continuous protection while reducing the risk of errors that might occur if domains were handled manually. For organizations that rely on SaaS services for daily operations, this feature simplifies security configuration while providing a reliable mechanism to control outbound internet traffic.

In comparison, other Azure networking and security solutions are less suitable for this type of domain-based outbound filtering. Network Security Groups, for example, are effective for controlling traffic at the IP and port level but cannot filter traffic based on domain names. This limitation makes them unsuitable for scenarios where access to specific SaaS services must be tightly controlled. Similarly, Azure Front Door is primarily focused on managing inbound web traffic, providing features such as global load balancing, SSL offloading, and application acceleration, but it does not offer the capability to restrict outbound connections. ExpressRoute provides private, dedicated network connectivity between on-premises infrastructure and Azure, ensuring reliable and low-latency connections, yet it does not include mechanisms to filter outbound traffic by domains or enforce application-specific restrictions.

By using Azure Firewall with FQDN tags, organizations gain a simple and effective way to enforce outbound traffic policies. This solution ensures that only connections to approved SaaS services are permitted, reducing the potential attack surface and enhancing overall network security. It also simplifies compliance efforts by providing a clear and manageable method to control which cloud services users and applications can access. For organizations that need granular control over outbound connectivity to cloud services, Azure Firewall with FQDN tags represents the most practical and secure choice.

Question 194

You need to design a scalable architecture to ingest millions of telemetry events per second from IoT devices. Which service should you choose?

A) Azure Event Hubs
B) Azure Service Bus
C) Azure Queue Storage
D) Azure Logic Apps

Answer: A) Azure Event Hubs

Explanation:

Azure Event Hubs is a fully managed data streaming platform and event ingestion service in Azure, specifically designed to handle high-throughput scenarios such as telemetry data, IoT device streams, and real-time analytics pipelines. Its architecture is built to process massive volumes of events simultaneously, making it ideal for applications that generate large quantities of data continuously. Event Hubs can ingest millions of events per second, enabling organizations to collect and process data from thousands or even millions of devices without bottlenecks. This capability makes it a powerful choice for scenarios where data velocity and scale are critical.

A key feature of Event Hubs is its partitioned consumer model, which allows data streams to be divided across multiple partitions. Each partition can be processed in parallel, enabling high levels of throughput while maintaining the order of events within a partition. This design ensures that applications can scale horizontally to handle increasing workloads while still providing low-latency access to the ingested data. Event Hubs also integrates seamlessly with other Azure services, such as Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Functions, and Azure Data Lake, allowing organizations to build real-time analytics and processing pipelines efficiently.

While Event Hubs excels in high-volume data ingestion, other Azure services serve different purposes. Azure Service Bus is designed for enterprise messaging scenarios, such as reliable message delivery, decoupling of application components, and transactional messaging. It is well-suited for scenarios that require ordered, guaranteed message delivery and complex routing, but it is not optimized for ingesting massive streams of telemetry or IoT events at the scale that Event Hubs supports.

Azure Queue Storage provides simple message queuing for applications needing basic task distribution or communication between components. However, it lacks the capacity and partitioning mechanisms required to handle high-throughput workloads efficiently. For scenarios where millions of events per second must be ingested and processed in near real-time, Queue Storage would become a bottleneck.

Logic Apps, on the other hand, are designed to automate workflows and orchestrate business processes across various services. While powerful for integration and automation, Logic Apps do not provide the ingestion and partitioning capabilities necessary to process high-volume telemetry or IoT data streams effectively.

Azure Event Hubs is the optimal choice for scenarios requiring massive event ingestion and real-time processing. Its high-throughput architecture, support for partitions, and low-latency design make it uniquely suited for handling telemetry, IoT streams, and other high-velocity data sources. Other services such as Service Bus, Queue Storage, and Logic Apps serve complementary roles but do not offer the scale and performance required for extreme-scale ingestion workloads. Event Hubs provides the tools and architecture necessary to efficiently collect, process, and route large streams of data in real time, making it the preferred solution for organizations facing massive data ingestion challenges.

Question 195

You need to design a solution that allows on-premises users to access Azure resources using their existing AD credentials without syncing passwords to Azure. What should you recommend?

A) Azure AD Pass-through Authentication
B) Azure AD Password Hash Sync
C) Azure AD B2C
D) Azure AD DS

Answer: A) Azure AD Pass-through Authentication

Explanation:

Pass-through Authentication is a method provided by Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) that enables organizations to authenticate users in the cloud by directly validating their credentials against the on-premises Active Directory. This approach is particularly useful for organizations that require users to log in to Azure services without storing or syncing their passwords in the cloud. By leveraging lightweight agents installed on on-premises servers, pass-through authentication securely forwards sign-in requests from Azure AD to the on-premises Active Directory, performs validation, and returns the authentication result. This mechanism allows users to use the same credentials they use in the corporate network for cloud-based services, providing a seamless and consistent login experience while maintaining strict control over password security.

One of the main advantages of pass-through authentication is that it eliminates the need to replicate password data to Azure AD. Unlike Password Hash Synchronization, which stores a cryptographic hash of user passwords in the cloud, pass-through authentication ensures that passwords remain solely on the on-premises environment. This is critical for organizations with strict security or regulatory requirements that prohibit cloud storage of password information. Since the credentials never leave the local network, this method reduces exposure to potential breaches while still enabling access to cloud resources.

In addition to security benefits, pass-through authentication is highly integrated with Azure AD and requires minimal infrastructure. The authentication agents are lightweight, easy to deploy, and can scale to handle large numbers of users. They support redundancy by allowing multiple agents to be deployed across servers, ensuring high availability in case one agent fails. The system also provides logging and monitoring capabilities, allowing administrators to track authentication attempts and identify any anomalies or issues quickly. This makes pass-through authentication a robust and reliable solution for organizations looking to extend their on-premises identity infrastructure to the cloud.

Other Azure identity solutions serve different purposes and are not suitable for scenarios where passwords cannot be stored in the cloud. For example, Azure AD B2C is designed for customer-facing applications and focuses on managing identities for external users rather than employees or internal organizational accounts. Azure AD Domain Services provides managed domain capabilities in Azure but does not authenticate directly against on-premises Active Directory unless passwords are synchronized, making it incompatible with environments where password sync is prohibited. Password Hash Sync, as mentioned earlier, is another common option for hybrid environments but inherently involves storing password hashes in Azure, which is not acceptable when local-only password validation is required.

pass-through authentication provides a secure, seamless, and compliant method for users to log in to Azure services using their on-premises credentials. By validating passwords directly against the local Active Directory, it avoids storing sensitive information in the cloud, maintains consistency in user experience, and supports organizational security and regulatory requirements. Its lightweight architecture, redundancy support, and integration with Azure AD make it the optimal choice for organizations that need Azure authentication without syncing or replicating passwords, ensuring both security and operational efficiency.