Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Study Resource

Purchasing and setting up your own datacenter is categorized as a capital expenditure (CapEx) computing solution. CapEx refers to the upfront costs associated with purchasing or upgrading physical assets, such as servers, networking equipment, and the physical facilities required to run a datacenter. This type of solution involves significant initial investment, where an organization buys the necessary hardware and infrastructure, making it an asset that is capitalized on the balance sheet.

In contrast, operating expenses (OpEx) are ongoing costs for running day-to-day operations, such as subscription fees for cloud services. When organizations deploy cloud solutions, they typically incur OpEx as they pay for services on a recurring basis rather than through a lump sum investment.

In this context, the correct categorization emphasizes the capital nature of setting up a physical datacenter compared to cloud-based solutions, which tend to be more flexible and often linked to an operational expense model. The decisive factor lies in the type of financial commitment and the accounting treatment of the costs involved.