CompTIA SecurityX (CAS-005)Security ArchitectureEasy
A security architect is designing a new payment processing system that must achieve extremely high availability and fault tolerance. The system will operate across multiple geographically dispersed data centers. A key requirement is that if an entire data center becomes unavailable, the system must continue processing transactions with minimal interruption and no data loss. Which architectural principle is most critical for achieving this requirement?
- AMicrosegmentation
- BGeographic Redundancy
- CImmutable Infrastructure
- DLeast Privilege
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Geographic Redundancy
Geographic redundancy involves deploying critical system components across multiple, distinct geographical locations. This ensures that a localized disaster or outage affecting one data center does not bring down the entire system, allowing operations to continue from another location with minimal disruption and preventing data loss.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Microsegmentation enhances security within a data center but doesn't protect against an entire data center failure.
- C. Immutable infrastructure ensures consistency and simplifies deployments but doesn't inherently provide geographic fault tolerance for an entire data center.
- D. Least privilege is an access control principle, not directly related to disaster recovery or high availability across data centers.
Geographic Redundancy
The practice of duplicating critical systems and data across multiple geographically separate locations to ensure continuous operation and data availability in the event of a regional disaster or outage affecting one location.
- Protects against regional disasters (e.g., earthquake, power grid failure).
- Ensures high availability and business continuity.
- Requires data replication and failover mechanisms.
Memory trick: Redundant geography keeps the system running, no matter where the disaster hits.