Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumCompute Virtualization Solutions

A healthcare organization is designing a compute virtualization solution on Azure to host a new medical records processing application. The application must meet the following requirements:
- Process sensitive patient information and protect data in use using hardware-based memory encryption.
- Run continuously as a steady-state production service.
- Maximize availability by protecting against localized datacenter outages.

Which compute virtualization solution should you recommend?

  1. Confidential virtual machines deployed across multiple Azure availability zonesAnswer
  2. B
    Confidential Spot virtual machines deployed across multiple Azure availability zones
  3. C
    Confidential virtual machines deployed within a single Azure availability zone
  4. D
    An Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster running standard D-series virtual machines with Azure Disk Encryption

Answer

Confidential virtual machines deployed across multiple Azure availability zones
The correct option satisfies the requirement to protect data in use by using Confidential virtual machines, which support memory encryption. It also satisfies the availability requirement by deploying the VMs across multiple availability zones, ensuring resilience against localized datacenter failures.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the core security requirement to protect data in use.
Determine that Azure Confidential VMs utilizing hardware-based technologies (such as AMD SEV-SNP or Intel TDX) are required to encrypt memory and protect data during processing.
Standard VM series only support encryption at rest, whereas confidential computing is required for encrypting data in memory while it is actively being processed.
2
Evaluate the workload continuity and availability parameters.
Confirm that the steady-state, 24/7 nature of the workload rules out Spot VMs, and the need for protection against datacenter outages requires distributing VMs across multiple availability zones.
Spot VMs are designed for interruptible workloads and are subject to immediate eviction. Single-zone VM deployments do not protect against localized zone failures.
3
Select the design that satisfies all security, availability, and complexity constraints.
Recommend deploying Confidential virtual machines distributed across multiple availability zones.
This configuration secures data in use, ensures regional high availability, and avoids the unnecessary administrative overhead of deploying container orchestration platforms.

Key Concept

Azure Confidential Computing and Virtual Machine High Availability
Estimated Time:1m 30s
Rate this question

Topics

Compute Virtualization Solutions

More questions from this topic