Which statement best describes the role of Availability Zones in AWS?

The role of Availability Zones in AWS is best described as being specific data centers within AWS Regions. Each AWS Region is composed of multiple Availability Zones, and these zones are designed to provide high availability and fault tolerance. By having multiple geographically isolated data centers within a region, AWS can ensure that even if one data center experiences an outage, the others can continue to operate, minimizing downtime for applications and services.

This architecture allows users to design applications that are resilient to failures and offers various services to replicate data and distribute workloads across different Availability Zones. This capability enhances the overall performance and reliability of the services offered by AWS.

The other statements do not accurately capture the primary function of Availability Zones in AWS. While optimizing network latency and serving as backup systems may be components of a broader strategy for cloud infrastructure, they do not focus specifically on the distinct role that Availability Zones play in providing resilience and ensuring service availability within a given AWS Region.