A SysOps administrator notices that a specific Amazon CloudWatch alarm remains continuously in the ALARM state. What is a likely explanation for why the alarm never leaves ALARM?

CloudWatch alarms continuously evaluate metric data against their defined thresholds, regardless of their current state. If the metric data consistently remains outside the threshold defined for the OK state, the alarm will persist in the ALARM state. It will only transition back to OK when the metric data falls within the acceptable range for a sufficient period, as defined by the alarm's evaluation periods. Alarms do not require manual resetting or disabling; they are stateful and react to ongoing metric changes. If an alarm isn't receiving data, it typically transitions to an INSUFFICIENTDATA state, not ALARM.