AZ-305 Question 58
Single answerYour organization is developing a globally distributed e-commerce application that needs to handle frequent read-only queries from multiple continents and write operations in a central region. You want to minimize management overhead, ensure low-latency reads close to your customers, and implement automatic geo-failover to maintain high availability if the primary region becomes unavailable. Which Azure-based design approach should you choose for the relational data tier?
- A
Deploy Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication configured in multiple regions
- B
Deploy SQL Server on Azure VMs with Always On Availability Groups across multiple regions
- C
Deploy Azure SQL Database in a single region without read replicas
- D
Deploy Azure Database for MySQL flexible server with multiple read replicas
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
For a globally distributed e-commerce solution requiring minimal management overhead, low-latency reads in multiple regions, and automatic geo-failover, Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication is the most suitable choice. It provides built-in high availability, read-scale replicas, and managed administration. For more details, refer to Microsoft's documentation on Azure SQL Database active geo-replication and auto-failover groups.
- A. Correct.
Option 1 (Correct): Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication allows you to replicate your primary database to secondary databases in different regions for read scale-out and high availability. This solution minimizes management overhead because Azure SQL Database is fully managed, and active geo-replication enables automatic or manual failover in the event of an outage in the primary region.
- B. Incorrect.
Option 2: While SQL Server on Azure VMs with Always On Availability Groups can support multi-region availability, it generally involves more management overhead (e.g., patching, backups, and manual cluster configuration). It can work in a similar scenario but is not as streamlined for global replication and scale-out reads as a fully managed Azure SQL Database.
- C. Incorrect.
Option 3: Deploying Azure SQL Database in a single region without read replicas will not satisfy the requirement for low-latency reads across multiple continents. It also limits your failover capabilities to a single region, which poses a higher risk if that region becomes unavailable.
- D. Incorrect.
Option 4: Azure Database for MySQL flexible servers support read replicas, but if your application relies on SQL Server features or T-SQL, MySQL might not offer full compatibility. Furthermore, the question specifically points toward a need for straightforward configuration of geo-failover and minimal operational overhead typically found in Azure SQL Database solutions.