Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204) Practice Exam

What type of Azure virtual machine is most suitable for testing and development purposes?

1. Compute optimized

2. General Purpose

3. Storage optimized

4. Memory optimized

The correct answer is: General Purpose

The most suitable type of Azure virtual machine for testing and development purposes is the general-purpose virtual machine. General-purpose VMs offer a balanced CPU-to-memory ratio, making them versatile for a variety of workloads, including development and testing scenarios. They are typically cost-effective and provide enough resources to handle common tasks such as running small to medium applications, databases, and test environments. In a development and testing context, teams often require flexibility and scalability as they iterate on their applications. The general-purpose VMs cater to these needs without being overly specialized, allowing developers to run various development tools, applications, and services efficiently. Although there are other VM types available, they are tailored to specific workloads. For example, compute-optimized VMs are designed for applications that require high CPU performance, while memory-optimized VMs are tailored for memory-intensive applications. Storage-optimized VMs are focused on high disk throughput and IOPS for applications that store and manage large volumes of data. These specialized VMs, while powerful in their respective areas, do not offer the balanced resource allocation needed for everyday development tasks. Therefore, the general-purpose virtual machine is the best choice for development and testing purposes due to its versatility and resource balance.