Switching From Tape to Cloud Backup for Disaster Availability
A systems administrator is considering switching from tape backup to an alternative backup solution that would allow data to be readily available in the event of a disaster. Which of the following backup types should the administrator implement?
Community Votes
76% of anonymous learners picked answer C. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.
Community Insight
Read readily available in the event of a disaster as an offsite requirement: an on-premises copy shares the fate of the production systems, while a cloud copy is still reachable after the primary site is lost.
The administrator wants an alternative to tape that keeps data reachable after a disaster. Cloud backup stores the copy offsite at a provider and makes it retrievable over the network, while disk and SAN stay in the same facility as the systems they protect, and copy or incremental describe what is captured rather than where it lives.
Picking disk or SAN because a local restore finishes faster than a tape restore. Restore speed is irrelevant when the backup media sits in the same building the disaster destroyed, and a SAN is a storage architecture rather than a backup destination.
Community Discussion (13 comments)
Comments & Corrections
No comments yet — spotted an error or have a note? Share it below.
Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
Cloud backup places the restore copy in an offsite location run by a provider, so the data survives a disaster that destroys the primary site and the local backup hardware. The copy is retrieved over the network, which satisfies the requirement that the data be readily available instead of being shipped in and mounted the way tape media must be. Tape is itself an offsite medium in many shops, but restoring from it means locating and loading cartridges, which is the exact delay the administrator wants to remove.Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Copy and incremental are backup methods describing how much changed data is captured, not where the backup is stored, so neither answers a question about replacing tape as a medium. Disk backup is fast, but a local disk array fails the disaster requirement because it normally sits in the same facility as the systems it protects. A storage area network is block storage for production workloads, is also on-premises, and provides no geographic separation from the disaster.Community Comment Notes
Most commenters land on cloud for the right reason: everything else on the list can be taken out by the same disaster. Several defend disk because a local restore is quicker, which is true but misses the availability wording in the stem. A minority reads the question as multiple-answer and picks cloud plus SAN; the stem asks for one backup type, and SAN is not a backup medium.Official Reference
Exam Strategy
When a stem pairs disaster with readily available, first separate on-premises media from offsite media, then discard any option that names a backup method such as full, copy, incremental, or differential instead of a storage location.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is a SAN not a valid replacement for a tape backup system?
A SAN provides block storage for production systems and sits in the same data center, so it offers no geographic separation; backups can be written to it, but that copy is still on-premises.
Does moving to cloud backup remove the need for full, incremental, or differential jobs?
No. Cloud describes where the copy is stored, while full, incremental, and differential describe how much data each job captures, so a cloud backup still needs a schedule and retention.