Final answer:
Popular Azure services that use Availability Zones for high availability include Azure SQL Database, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Private Link. These services are designed to remain operational even if one zone is affected, ensuring continuous service and data protection.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question pertains to the Azure services that utilize Availability Zones for enhanced reliability and high availability. Availability Zones are unique physical locations within an Azure region, each with its own power source, cooling, and networking, to provide redundancy and reduce the likelihood of concurrent failures. Some of the popular Azure services that support Availability Zones include but are not limited to Azure SQL Database, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Private Link. By utilizing Availability Zones, these services can ensure that if one zone is compromised, the other zones can continue to operate normally, thereby reducing the impact on users and maintaining uptime.
For example, Azure Virtual Machines can be deployed across different Availability Zones within a region to balance loads and prevent downtime caused by localized infrastructure failures. Likewise, Azure SQL Database leverages Availability Zones to provide high availability for databases through automatic failover capabilities between zones.
Overall, incorporating Availability Zones is a strategic practice that can significantly improve service continuity and data protection for critical business applications hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.