Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204)Develop Azure compute solutionsHard

A company is modernizing its on-premises data processing workflows by migrating them to Azure. The workflows involve running a series of complex, long-running computational tasks that can be broken down into many independent sub-tasks. These sub-tasks need to be executed in parallel across a pool of compute nodes, and the company requires a managed service that can automatically provision and scale these nodes, distribute tasks, and handle task failures. Which Azure compute solution is BEST suited for this scenario?

  1. AAzure Container Instances (ACI)
  2. BAzure Functions
  3. CAzure Batch
  4. DAzure App Service
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C. Azure Batch

Azure Batch is a managed service for running large-scale parallel and high-performance computing (HPC) applications efficiently. It automatically provisions and scales virtual machines, schedules tasks across them, and handles task failures, making it ideal for the described scenario of complex, long-running computational tasks broken into independent sub-tasks.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. ACI is suitable for running individual containers but lacks the orchestration and management features for large-scale parallel job processing.
  • B. Azure Functions are designed for stateless, event-driven, short-lived tasks, not long-running, complex computational workflows.
  • D. Azure App Service is for hosting web applications and APIs, not for orchestrating long-running, parallel computational tasks.

Azure Batch

Azure Batch is a managed service that enables you to run large-scale parallel and high-performance computing (HPC) applications efficiently in Azure.

  • Automatically provisions and scales compute nodes (VMs).
  • Schedules and runs tasks across the pool of nodes.
  • Handles job and task management, including failures.
  • Ideal for scientific simulations, rendering, data analysis.

Memory trick: Batch: 'B'ig 'A'utomated 'T'asks 'C'ompleted 'H'ighly efficiently.

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