The answer is Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS). This replication strategy is correct because it asynchronously replicates your data from the primary West US region to a paired secondary region, and crucially, it grants read access to that secondary endpoint even while the primary is unavailable. This directly fulfills the requirement for minimal latency read access during a disaster, as clients can immediately read from the secondary region without waiting for a failover. On the AZ-204 exam, this question tests your understanding of Azure Storage replication options and their trade-offs, often appearing in scenario-based questions about disaster recovery and high availability. A common trap is choosing standard GRS, which replicates data asynchronously but does not allow read access to the secondary region unless Microsoft initiates a failover. To remember this, think: RA-GRS gives you the R (read) from the secondary region, while GRS keeps it locked until a failover.
AZ-204 Develop for Azure storage Practice Question
This AZ-204 practice question tests your understanding of develop for azure storage. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
You are designing a disaster recovery plan for a storage account containing critical data. The storage account is in the West US region. You need to ensure that if West US becomes unavailable, read access to the data is still possible with minimal latency. The data must be replicated asynchronously. Which replication strategy should you choose?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)
RA-GRS (Read-access geo-redundant storage) is the correct choice because it provides asynchronous replication to a secondary region (paired region) and enables read access to the secondary endpoint even if the primary region fails. This meets the requirement for minimal latency read access during a West US outage, as RA-GRS allows reading from the secondary region while data is asynchronously replicated.
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.
✗
Read-access geo-zone-redundant storage (RA-GZRS)
Why it's wrong here
RA-GZRS also meets requirements but is more expensive; RA-GRS is the simpler correct answer.
✗
Locally redundant storage (LRS)
Why it's wrong here
LRS does not replicate to another region.
✓
Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)
Why this is correct
RA-GRS allows asynchronous replication and read access to the secondary region.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Geo-redundant storage (GRS)
Why it's wrong here
GRS does not provide read access to the secondary region without failover.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse GRS with RA-GRS, overlooking that GRS does not provide read access to the secondary region until a failover is initiated, which fails the 'read access with minimal latency' requirement.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
RA-GRS leverages Azure's paired regions (e.g., West US paired with East US) to asynchronously replicate blobs, files, queues, and tables. The secondary endpoint (e.g., `*.secondary.blob.core.windows.net`) is always available for reads, but data may not be fully consistent due to asynchronous replication's recovery point objective (RPO) of typically 15 minutes. This design is ideal for scenarios where continuous read availability is critical, even if writes are temporarily disabled during a primary outage.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-204 question in full detail.
Develop for Azure storage — This question tests Develop for Azure storage — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) — RA-GRS (Read-access geo-redundant storage) is the correct choice because it provides asynchronous replication to a secondary region (paired region) and enables read access to the secondary endpoint even if the primary region fails. This meets the requirement for minimal latency read access during a West US outage, as RA-GRS allows reading from the secondary region while data is asynchronously replicated.
What should I do if I get this AZ-204 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.
About these practice questions
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These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. You want to ensure that data in an Azure Storage account is replicated across multiple Azure regions to protect against regional outages. Which replication option should you choose?
easy
✓ A.Geo-redundant storage (GRS)
B.Locally-redundant storage (LRS)
C.Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)
D.Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
Why A: Geo-redundant storage (GRS) replicates your data synchronously three times within a primary region using LRS, then asynchronously replicates to a secondary region hundreds of miles away. This ensures data survives a complete regional outage because the secondary copy is available for read or write access after a failover, meeting the requirement for cross-region protection.
Variation 2. You deploy the ARM template shown in the exhibit. After deployment, you need to change the replication to geo-redundant storage (GRS) with read access (RA-GRS). What should you do?
medium
A.Redeploy the same template; Standard_GRS already provides geo-redundancy.
B.Set the 'supportsHttpsTrafficOnly' property to false.
C.Change the 'accessTier' to 'Cool'.
✓ D.Update the 'sku.name' to 'Standard_RAGRS' and redeploy.
Why D: Option D is correct because the ARM template initially deploys a storage account with 'Standard_GRS' (geo-redundant storage), but to enable read access to the secondary region (RA-GRS), you must change the SKU name to 'Standard_RAGRS'. Redeploying the template with this updated property updates the replication setting to RA-GRS, which provides both geo-redundancy and read access to the secondary endpoint.
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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