Which statement best distinguishes archiving from backup and disaster recovery in cloud data management?

• A. Archiving stores data long-term with infrequent access; backups enable quick restores; disaster recovery plans restore service after major disruption with RTO/RPO targets
• B. Archiving replaces backups during outages and is done in the cloud
• C. Backups and archiving are the same, both fast restore
• D. Disaster recovery is only about restoring data, not services

Answer: (A)

In cloud data management, the purpose and access pattern drive the differences: archiving is long-term storage of data that isn’t needed often, kept cheaply for compliance or historical records; backups are copies created to recover data quickly after loss or corruption; disaster recovery is a plan to restore service availability after a major disruption, with defined targets for how quickly you must be back online and how much data loss is acceptable (RTO and RPO). The statement that covers all three roles accurately—long-term, infrequent-access storage for archiving; fast-restoration capability for backups; and a service-restoring plan with RTO/RPO targets for disaster recovery—best distinguishes these concepts.

The other options mischaracterize the roles: archiving is not a replacement for backups during outages and isn’t something performed only in the cloud; backups and archiving are not the same and archiving is not about fast restore; and disaster recovery focuses on restoring both service and data, not data alone, with explicit continuity objectives.