Why is redundancy important for cloud applications?

Redundancy is crucial for cloud applications primarily because it enables continuous operation during outages. This means that if one part of the cloud infrastructure fails—whether due to hardware malfunctions, network issues, or other disruptions—redundant systems are in place to take over seamlessly. This ensures that users experience minimal downtime and that services remain available even in the face of potential failures.

Cloud environments often implement redundancy by duplicating critical components, such as servers, databases, or network pathways. This setup allows for failover mechanisms that automatically redirect traffic or operations to backup resources without any noticeable interruption to users. Such a strategy is essential for maintaining high availability and reliability, which are key metrics in service level agreements (SLAs).

In contrast, other options either do not directly relate to the primary benefits of redundancy in cloud applications or focus on aspects that do not enhance the operational resilience of cloud services.