Which ONTAP feature provides zero-RPO data protection for critical workloads?

Which ONTAP feature provides zero-RPO data protection for critical workloads?

• A. FlexCache
• B. FlexClone
• C. SnapVault
• D. SnapMirror Active Sync

Answer: (D)

Zero RPO for critical workloads is achieved by synchronous replication, where every write is durably stored at both the primary and the replica before the write is acknowledged. In ONTAP, SnapMirror in Active Sync mode provides this exact guarantee: it mirrors data to a destination in real time, so a failover won’t lose any recent updates. This makes it the best fit for workloads that cannot tolerate even a small amount of data loss. FlexCache focuses on speeding reads by caching data at a remote site, not on protecting data. FlexClone creates writable copies of volumes for testing or development, without providing protection against data loss. SnapVault offers asynchronous backups to secondary storage, which means there can be some data loss between the last backup and a failure, so it doesn’t provide zero RPO.

Zero RPO for critical workloads is achieved by synchronous replication, where every write is durably stored at both the primary and the replica before the write is acknowledged. In ONTAP, SnapMirror in Active Sync mode provides this exact guarantee: it mirrors data to a destination in real time, so a failover won’t lose any recent updates. This makes it the best fit for workloads that cannot tolerate even a small amount of data loss.

FlexCache focuses on speeding reads by caching data at a remote site, not on protecting data. FlexClone creates writable copies of volumes for testing or development, without providing protection against data loss. SnapVault offers asynchronous backups to secondary storage, which means there can be some data loss between the last backup and a failure, so it doesn’t provide zero RPO.