A data analytics firm needs guaranteed availability for critical apps even if one data center fails. What should they look for from a cloud provider?

Availability Zones are physically separate data centers within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying resources across multiple Availability Zones ensures that if one zone experiences an outage, the application remains available in another zone, providing the high availability and disaster recovery needed for critical applications. High-performance computing refers to specialized services for intensive workloads, not directly related to disaster recovery. Consumption-based pricing describes the billing model, not a technical feature for availability. On-demand scaling allows resources to adjust based on demand but doesn't inherently protect against a full data center failure.