AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Question
What is disaster recovery in the context of cloud computing?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse disaster recovery with high availability (Option A), as both involve redundancy, but DR specifically addresses recovery after a failure has occurred, not preventing the failure itself.
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
✓
Restoring systems and data after a catastrophic event with minimal downtime
Disaster recovery (DR) in cloud computing focuses on restoring systems, applications, and data after a catastrophic event (e.g., natural disaster, cyberattack) to meet Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) targets. Azure Site Recovery orchestrates replication, failover, and failback of workloads between primary and secondary regions, ensuring minimal downtime and data loss. This is distinct from high availability, which prevents outages, or auto-scaling, which handles demand fluctuations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Preventing any service outages from occurring
Why it's wrong here
Preventing any service outages from occurring describes high availability, not disaster recovery. High availability uses redundancy, fault tolerance, and quick failover to minimize downtime during component failures, but it assumes the service continues to operate; disaster recovery, by contrast, assumes a catastrophic event has already caused loss of systems or data and focuses on restoring them afterward. No design can absolutely prevent all outages, so DR addresses the inevitable need for recovery, not prevention.
- ✓
Restoring systems and data after a catastrophic event with minimal downtime
Why this is correct
Disaster recovery (DR) is the structured process of restoring systems, applications, and data to an operational state after a catastrophic event such as a region-wide outage, cyberattack, or natural disaster. It is governed by recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO), which specify the maximum acceptable downtime and the maximum acceptable data loss. This definition directly matches the option: restoring functionality with minimal downtime after a catastrophic loss.
- ✗
Automatically scaling resources when demand increases
Why it's wrong here
Automatically scaling resources when demand increases describes elasticity, a core Cloud computing characteristic in which capacity adjusts up or down based on workload. Elasticity optimizes performance and cost during normal operations, but it cannot repair corrupted databases, rehydrate deleted backups, or recover from regional failures. Disaster recovery is not about scaling; it is about restoring service from a known-good state after a catastrophic loss.
- ✗
Distributing traffic across multiple servers for performance
Why it's wrong here
Distributing traffic across multiple servers for performance describes load balancing, which spreads incoming requests to improve responsiveness and availability. Load balancing can redirect traffic away from a failed instance, but it does not recover lost data, rebuild corrupted environments, or reinstate services after a large-scale disaster. It is an availability and performance technique, not a disaster recovery mechanism.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
What is Cloud Computing?
Key term
Availability
Availability is the measure of how often a system or service is operational and accessible when needed, typically expressed as a percentage of uptime.
Key term
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the internet, allowing users to access computing power, storage, and applications without owning physical hardware.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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