The correct answer is to implement automated snapshots and replicate data to a different geographic region, combined with deploying across multiple availability zones within a single region. This pairing directly addresses both high availability and disaster recovery in cloud IaaS: multi-AZ deployment provides immediate fault tolerance by distributing workloads across isolated data centers within a region, ensuring continuous operation if one zone fails, while cross-region replication of snapshots protects against a full regional outage, enabling recovery from a geographically separate location. On the Certified Cloud Security Professional CCSP exam, this question tests your understanding of the shared responsibility model and the distinction between high availability (rapid failover within a region) and disaster recovery (data durability and recovery across regions). A common trap is confusing backup-only strategies with true high availability—snapshots alone do not provide automatic failover. Remember the mnemonic: “AZs for uptime, regions for recovery.”
CCSP Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security Practice Question
This CCSP practice question tests your understanding of cloud platform and infrastructure security. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is deploying a critical application on a public cloud IaaS platform. To ensure high availability and disaster recovery, which TWO of the following strategies should the company implement? (Choose two.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy the application across multiple availability zones within a region.
Deploying across multiple availability zones (AZs) within a region ensures that if one AZ experiences an outage, the application can continue serving traffic from another AZ, providing high availability. This is a fundamental cloud architecture pattern for fault tolerance, as each AZ is an isolated data center with independent power, cooling, and networking.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Deploy the application across multiple availability zones within a region.
Why this is correct
This provides high availability within a region.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use an active-passive configuration with both instances in the same availability zone.
Why it's wrong here
Both instances in one zone share the same failure domain.
✗
Configure the application to run in only one region to simplify management.
Why it's wrong here
A single region is vulnerable to regional outages.
✓
Implement automated snapshots and replicate data to a different geographic region.
Why this is correct
This ensures disaster recovery and data durability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use a single, large virtual machine instance to handle all traffic.
Why it's wrong here
A single instance is a single point of failure.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
ISC2 often tests the distinction between high availability (fault tolerance within a region using multiple AZs) and disaster recovery (cross-region data replication and failover), and the trap is that candidates confuse active-passive in the same AZ (which is not HA) with a valid HA strategy.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Availability zones within a region are connected via low-latency links (typically <2 ms RTT), allowing synchronous replication for stateful applications. For disaster recovery, automated snapshots replicated to a different geographic region (e.g., using AWS EBS snapshots copied across regions or Azure Site Recovery) provide an RPO of minutes and RTO of hours, depending on data volume and recovery procedures. This combination meets both HA (within region) and DR (cross-region) requirements.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A security analyst at a medium-sized enterprise encounters this scenario during an investigation or architecture review. The correct answer reflects best practice for the specific threat or control described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Security exam questions test whether you can match controls to threats in context — not just recall definitions.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security — This question tests Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Deploy the application across multiple availability zones within a region. — Deploying across multiple availability zones (AZs) within a region ensures that if one AZ experiences an outage, the application can continue serving traffic from another AZ, providing high availability. This is a fundamental cloud architecture pattern for fault tolerance, as each AZ is an isolated data center with independent power, cooling, and networking.
What should I do if I get this CCSP question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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