A multi-tier on-premises application must recover in Azure with an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO under 30 minutes. The app consists of several VMs that require consistent recovery. Which approach best meets the objectives while optimizing cost and complexity?

Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is the most suitable solution. It directly supports the specified RPO of 5 minutes through its replication policies and can achieve an RTO under 30 minutes, especially when combined with a well-designed Recovery Plan. Multi-VM consistency ensures that all VMs in the application recover to the same point in time, which is critical for multi-tier applications. Recovery Plans automate the failover process, including network reconfiguration and service startup, reducing manual effort and RTO. Incorrect options: Azure Backup hourly backups would result in an RPO of up to 60 minutes, failing to meet the 5-minute requirement. Manually copying VHDs and using SQL Always On for only the database is a partial, complex, and error-prone solution that doesn't address the entire application's RPO/RTO or multi-VM consistency. Cross-region synchronous storage replication is expensive and complex to manage for VMs, and manual VM recreation from snapshots would lead to a very high RTO.