Question

Difficulty: MediumPlatform as a Service (PaaS)

A media company is planning to migrate its on-premises relational database to Microsoft Azure. The company is evaluating whether to use Azure SQL Database (Platform as a Service) or deploy SQL Server on an Azure Virtual Machine (Infrastructure as a Service). Which of the following describes a benefit of choosing the Platform as a Service (PaaS) deployment model over the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model?

  1. A
    The customer retains complete administrative control over the operating system hosting the database.
  2. The cloud provider handles the patching and maintenance of the operating system and database engine.Answer
  3. C
    The customer is responsible for installing and licensing the database engine manually.
  4. D
    The database is provided as a fully configured end-user software application where database schemas cannot be customized.

Answer

The cloud provider handles the patching and maintenance of the operating system and database engine.
With Platform as a Service (PaaS) database solutions like Azure SQL Database, Microsoft manages operating system patching, virtualization, hardware maintenance, and database engine updates, significantly reducing administrative overhead compared to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the requirements for Platform as a Service (PaaS) versus Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) deployment models.
IaaS leaves operating system management, database installation, and OS patching to the customer, whereas PaaS transfers these responsibilities to the cloud provider.
This helps determine which model shifts administrative maintenance tasks to Microsoft.
2
Evaluate the options against the characteristics of PaaS.
The option describing the cloud provider managing OS patching and database engine maintenance is correct, while SaaS characteristics and IaaS administrative control represent incorrect models.
This confirms that the selected choice accurately represents the key advantage of PaaS.

Key Concept

Platform as a Service (PaaS) features and responsibilities compared to IaaS and SaaS
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