easyMultiple Choice
CCSP Practice Question: A cloud administrator is designing a backup…
A cloud administrator is designing a backup strategy for a critical database. Which of the following is the BEST approach to ensure data recoverability in case of a regional outage?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between 'availability zone' and 'region' redundancy, where candidates mistakenly believe that multiple AZs within a single region provide sufficient protection against a regional outage, but they do not—only cross-region replication ensures survivability from a full regional failure.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Regularly copy backups to a different geographic region.
Replicating backups to a different geographic region ensures data recoverability even if the entire primary region experiences a catastrophic outage. This approach leverages cross-region replication, which provides independent fault domains and meets the recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO) requirements for regional disaster scenarios. Cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP offer services such as S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) or Azure Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) to automate this process.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Regularly copy backups to a different geographic region.
Why this is correct
Replicating backups to a separate geographic region ensures recoverability when an entire region fails, satisfying the regional outage constraint. Same-region copies would be lost with the region itself, so geographic separation is the mechanism that preserves data availability.
- ✗
Use tape backups stored in a physical safe in the same building.
Why it's wrong here
Tape backups in the same building share the region's failure domain, so a regional outage destroys both the database and its recovery media. It is tempting because offline tape in a safe is a valid control against ransomware or site-level theft, where geographic separation is not the requirement.
- ✗
Perform only daily backups without replication.
Why it's wrong here
Daily backups alone leave no copy outside the failed region, so a regional outage destroys both the database and its only recovery point. It is tempting because a daily schedule is a legitimate baseline for low-criticality data where regional resilience is not required.
- ✗
Store backups in a different availability zone within the same region.
Why it's wrong here
A different availability zone still sits inside the same region, so a regional outage removes both the database and its backups. It is tempting because cross-AZ replication is the correct design for surviving an availability zone failure, which is a narrower failure domain than a region.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CCSP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CCSP exam.