Cloud computing can sound like magic—until you ask three practical questions:
Who owns the hardware?
Who manages it?
And who pays when resources sit idle?
While preparing for AZ-900, I realized that several assumptions I had about the cloud were incomplete.
Myth 1: The cloud is always cheaper
The cloud can reduce upfront infrastructure costs, but savings are not automatic.
Idle resources, incorrect sizing, and poor planning can quickly increase the bill.
The real lesson?
Cloud savings must be designed.
Myth 2: The cloud means there are no servers
Servers did not disappear.
They still exist inside physical data centers. The difference is that the cloud provider manages more of the underlying infrastructure depending on whether you choose IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS.
The cloud changes who manages what.
Myth 3: More control is always better
More control may sound attractive, but it also brings more responsibility:
- Patching
- Monitoring
- Security decisions
- Maintenance
- Configuration
Sometimes the smartest technical decision is choosing a managed service and focusing on the application instead of the infrastructure.
My biggest takeaway
The cloud is not automatically cheaper, simpler, or better.
It is a collection of trade-offs between:
Cost, control, responsibility, and speed.
Microsoft Learn provides a free official path for anyone who wants to explore these concepts:
👉 Explore the official AZ-900 course on Microsoft Learn
Which cloud myth did you believe when you first started learning?
