Which virtualization features are essential for cloud infrastructure?

High availability and disaster recovery are crucial features for cloud infrastructure because they ensure that services remain operational and accessible even in the face of hardware failures, outages, or other disruptions. High availability refers to the design of systems that remain functional for a long time, minimizing downtime. This is typically achieved through redundant systems and load balancing, which distribute workloads across multiple servers to prevent any single point of failure.

Disaster recovery involves strategies and processes that enable the restoration of data and service functionality after an unforeseen catastrophe, such as natural disasters or system failures. This is vital for maintaining business continuity and protecting against data loss, which can be catastrophic for organizations.

In contrast, other options lack the essential characteristics needed for robust cloud infrastructure. Physical server management pertains more to the maintenance of physical hardware rather than the virtualization aspect that supports cloud services. Monolithic architecture opposes the microservices approach favored in cloud environments, which benefits from modular and scalable components. Manual resource allocation can introduce inefficiencies and does not capitalize on the automation and dynamic scaling that modern cloud platforms offer. Therefore, high availability and disaster recovery stand out as vital features in ensuring a resilient and reliable cloud infrastructure.