Quick Answer
The correct answer is Azure Site Recovery because it is the only service that meets the strict RPO of 5 minutes and RTO of 15 minutes for cross-region disaster recovery of Azure VMs. Azure Site Recovery continuously replicates VM workloads from the primary region to a secondary Azure region, enabling near-synchronous replication that achieves an RPO as low as 5 minutes and an RTO measured in minutes through automated failover and recovery plans. On the AZ-305 exam, this question tests your ability to distinguish between disaster recovery, backup, and traffic routing services—a common trap is confusing Azure Backup (which has a minimum 12-hour RPO) or Traffic Manager (DNS-only) with true replication. Remember that for regional outages requiring rapid recovery, Azure Site Recovery is the dedicated DR solution, while Backup is for long-term retention. Memory tip: "Site Recovery for Seconds, Backup for Hours."
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design business continuity solutions. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 runs a critical web application on Azure VMs in two availability zones. They need to ensure the application remains available during a regional outage with an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO of 15 minutes. What should they implement?
Azure Backup
Why wrong: Backup RPO is typically 12 hours or more for VMs.
Azure Traffic Manager
Why wrong: Traffic Manager is DNS-based routing, not replication.
Azure Site Recovery
Site Recovery provides replication with RPO as low as 5 minutes and supports RTO of 15 minutes.
Azure Front Door
Why wrong: Front Door is for global load balancing, not VM replication.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Azure Site Recovery
Option B is correct because Azure Site Recovery can replicate VMs to a secondary Azure region with a recovery point objective (RPO) as low as 5 minutes and recovery time objective (RTO) measured in minutes. Option A is wrong because Azure Front Door provides global load balancing and caching, but does not handle VM replication. Option C is wrong because Azure Backup has a minimum RPO of 12 hours for VMs. Option D is wrong because Azure Traffic Manager only provides DNS-based traffic routing, not VM replication.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Azure Backup
Why it's wrong here
Backup RPO is typically 12 hours or more for VMs.
Azure Traffic Manager
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager is DNS-based routing, not replication.
Azure Site Recovery
Why this is correct
Site Recovery provides replication with RPO as low as 5 minutes and supports RTO of 15 minutes.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Front Door is for global load balancing, not VM replication.
Common exam traps
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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.
What to study next
Identify which AZ-305 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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FAQ
Design business continuity solutions — This question tests Design business continuity solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Azure Site Recovery — Option B is correct because Azure Site Recovery can replicate VMs to a secondary Azure region with a recovery point objective (RPO) as low as 5 minutes and recovery time objective (RTO) measured in minutes. Option A is wrong because Azure Front Door provides global load balancing and caching, but does not handle VM replication. Option C is wrong because Azure Backup has a minimum RPO of 12 hours for VMs. Option D is wrong because Azure Traffic Manager only provides DNS-based traffic routing, not VM replication.
Identify which AZ-305 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 20, 2026
This AZ-305 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft 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 AZ-305 exam.
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