Question 162 of 1,031

Describe cloud concepts →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Quick Answer

The correct answer is that disaster recovery in cloud computing means the ability to restore systems and data after a major outage, and Azure supports this primarily through Azure Site Recovery (ASR). This is correct because ASR orchestrates automated replication, failover, and failback of virtual machines and workloads across Azure regions or from on-premises to Azure, enabling you to meet defined recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) for business continuity. On the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 exam, this concept tests your understanding of high-availability and resilience options, often appearing in scenario-based questions where you must distinguish disaster recovery from backup or redundancy. A common trap is confusing Azure Backup (for file-level recovery) with Azure Site Recovery (for full workload failover). Memory tip: think “Site Recovery = Site Switch” — it moves your entire site to another location after a disaster.

AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Question

This AZ-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe cloud concepts. 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.

What does 'disaster recovery' mean in cloud computing, and how does Azure support it?

Question 1mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A
Disaster recovery means the cloud never experiences any failures
Why wrong: No system guarantees zero failures — DR is about rapid recovery when failures do occur.
B
The ability to restore systems and data after a major outage, supported by services like Azure Site Recovery
DR is about planning and executing recovery from major failures; Azure Site Recovery replicates VMs to secondary regions for failover.
C
Disaster recovery is only relevant for on-premises systems
Why wrong: DR applies to cloud workloads too — cloud services can fail, and cross-region replication is the cloud DR strategy.
D
Azure automatically protects all data with no configuration required
Why wrong: Azure provides DR tools but customers must configure replication, failover policies, and test their DR plans.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

The ability to restore systems and data after a major outage, supported by services like Azure Site Recovery

Disaster recovery (DR) in cloud computing refers to the strategies and processes used to restore IT systems and data after a catastrophic failure, such as a natural disaster or large-scale outage. Azure supports DR primarily through Azure Site Recovery (ASR), which orchestrates replication, failover, and failback of virtual machines and workloads between Azure regions or from on-premises to Azure, ensuring business continuity with defined recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO).

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.

✗
Disaster recovery means the cloud never experiences any failures
Why it's wrong here
No system guarantees zero failures — DR is about rapid recovery when failures do occur.
✓
The ability to restore systems and data after a major outage, supported by services like Azure Site Recovery
Why this is correct
DR is about planning and executing recovery from major failures; Azure Site Recovery replicates VMs to secondary regions for failover.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Disaster recovery is only relevant for on-premises systems
Why it's wrong here
DR applies to cloud workloads too — cloud services can fail, and cross-region replication is the cloud DR strategy.
✗
Azure automatically protects all data with no configuration required
Why it's wrong here
Azure provides DR tools but customers must configure replication, failover policies, and test their DR plans.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates may assume disaster recovery is only about preventing failures (Option A) or that it is automatically handled by the cloud provider (Option D), when in fact DR requires active configuration and planning by the customer.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Azure Site Recovery replicates VMs at the hypervisor level using continuous replication, capturing writes to virtual disks and sending them to a target region or site. During a failover, ASR orchestrates the creation of recovery VMs from the replicated data, allowing RPOs as low as 15 seconds for Azure-to-Azure replication. In a real-world scenario, a financial firm might use ASR to failover critical workloads from East US to West US during a regional outage, with automated runbooks to handle DNS updates and load balancer reconfiguration.

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.

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.

Related AZ-900 practice-question pages

Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.

Describe cloud concepts practice questions

Practise AZ-900 questions linked to Describe cloud concepts.

Describe Azure architecture and services practice questions

Practise AZ-900 questions linked to Describe Azure architecture and services.

Describe Azure management and governance practice questions

Practise AZ-900 questions linked to Describe Azure management and governance.

AZ-900 Azure services practice questions

Practise AZ-900 questions linked to AZ-900 Azure services.

AZ-900 pricing and support practice questions

Practise AZ-900 questions linked to AZ-900 pricing and support.

AZ-900 security and compliance practice questions

Practise AZ-900 questions linked to AZ-900 security and compliance.

AZ-900 governance practice questions

Practise AZ-900 questions linked to AZ-900 governance.

Practice this exam

Start a free AZ-900 practice session

Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.

10 questions 20 questions 30 questions 50 questions Timed 30

AZ-900 practice-test guide →Study guide →Browse all practice tests

FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this AZ-900 question test?

Describe cloud concepts — This question tests Describe cloud concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: The ability to restore systems and data after a major outage, supported by services like Azure Site Recovery — Disaster recovery (DR) in cloud computing refers to the strategies and processes used to restore IT systems and data after a catastrophic failure, such as a natural disaster or large-scale outage. Azure supports DR primarily through Azure Site Recovery (ASR), which orchestrates replication, failover, and failback of virtual machines and workloads between Azure regions or from on-premises to Azure, ensuring business continuity with defined recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO).

What should I do if I get this AZ-900 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

Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →

How Courseiva writes practice questions · Editorial policy

Keep practising

Question Discussion

Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.

Loading comments…

This AZ-900 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-900 exam.