What are the characteristics of Availability Zones? (Select TWO.)

AWS Availability Zones (AZs) within a Region are designed for high availability and fault tolerance. To achieve this, they are interconnected with fully redundant, dedicated metro fiber, which provides high-bandwidth and low-latency networking (A). This allows for synchronous replication and rapid failover between AZs. Furthermore, AWS ensures the security and integrity of data in transit between these zones by encrypting all inter-AZ traffic by default (C). These two characteristics are fundamental to building resilient and secure applications on AWS.

B. AWS states AZs are separated by a "meaningful distance" but does not specify a minimum distance; they are typically within 100 km (60 miles) of each other.

D. This is incorrect. The core design principle of an AZ is fault isolation; therefore, each AZ has independent power, cooling, and networking, not shared resources.

E. An Availability Zone consists of one or more discrete data centers, not just a single one, to provide redundancy within the zone itself.

1. AWS Documentation. (n.d.). Regions and Zones. AWS. Retrieved from https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regionsaz/.

Under the "Availability Zones" section

it states

"Availability Zones are connected to each other with fast

private fiber-optic networking..." which supports option A. It also explicitly states

"All traffic between AZs is encrypted

" which confirms option C. The same section notes

"Each Availability Zone has independent power

cooling

and physical security

" refuting option D

and "An AZ is one or more discrete data centers

" refuting option E.

2. AWS Well-Architected Framework. (2023

July). AWS Well-Architected Framework: Reliability Pillar. AWS Whitepaper.

On page 11

it states

"AZs are interconnected with high-bandwidth

low-latency networking

over fully redundant

dedicated metro fiber..." This directly supports option A.

On page 11

it also states

"All traffic between AZs is encrypted

" which directly supports option C.

On page 11

the document clarifies

"Each AZ is designed as an independent failure zone

" which contradicts the idea of shared infrastructure in option D.