A regulated insurer must rehost a Windows-based intranet application that depends on COM components, MSI installers, registry adapters, and SMB drive mappings. The team wants the lowest-overhead Azure web-hosting model that supports those dependencies natively, without spinning up VMs or moving to containers. Which App Service hosting model does the quick decision guide recommend?
- AStandard App Service plan on Windows
- BManaged Instance on App Service (preview) Correct
- CApp Service Environment with isolated VMs
- DAzure Virtual Machines with IIS configured manually
Why A is wrong: A standard plan provides broad runtime flexibility and platform-managed OS patching but does not expose COM, MSI, registry, or drive-mapping customisation needed by the workload.
Why B is correct: Correct. The App Service overview describes Managed Instance on App Service as the preview tier specifically built for legacy or infrastructure-bound Windows web apps that need Component Object Model, registry access, Microsoft Installers, drive mapping, or stricter network boundaries.
Why C is wrong: ASE is the choice when the requirement is large-scale isolation across many apps, not deep per-plan OS customisation for COM/MSI/registry dependencies.
Why D is wrong: Virtual Machines work but force the team to manage OS, patching, and IIS themselves, which violates the lowest-overhead criterion.