Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies (AZ-300) Practice Exam

A managed identity in Azure allows for:

1. Manual account management by users

2. Instant creation for supported Azure services

3. Storing user credentials securely

4. Decreasing service availability

The correct answer is: Instant creation for supported Azure services

A managed identity in Azure facilitates the instant creation of identities for applications to leverage when accessing Azure resources, without the need for manual management. This feature allows developers to avoid hardcoding credentials in their applications, thus enhancing security and simplifying identity management for Azure resources. When using managed identities, Azure automatically handles the lifecycle of the identity, which includes creation, deletion, and credential management. This enables applications to authenticate to Azure services seamlessly and securely while eliminating the overhead associated with maintaining user accounts or secrets manually. The other options do not align with the core functions of managed identities. For instance, manual account management by users is contrary to the purpose of managed identities, which aim to automate and simplify access. Similarly, storing user credentials securely is a characteristic more associated with Azure Key Vault, rather than a managed identity itself. Finally, decreasing service availability does not accurately represent the goal of managed identities; instead, they are designed to enhance security and improve the reliability of identity management in Azure.