Western Governors University (WGU) ITEC2104 C175 Data Management - Foundations Practice Exam

A fault-tolerant database is designed to continue functioning smoothly and effectively even when some of its components fail. This characteristic is critical for ensuring data availability and reliability in distributed systems, where different parts of the database can be located across various locations or servers. The architecture of a fault-tolerant database includes redundancy and mechanisms for failover, allowing it to maintain operations without losing data or requiring complete shutdown during partial system failures. This capability is especially important in environments where uptime is essential, such as in financial institutions or e-commerce platforms, where any downtime can lead to significant losses.

In contrast, a mirrored database typically involves creating copies of data on different servers, which helps in data recovery but does not inherently provide the operational continuity during failures as effectively as a fault-tolerant system. A decentralized database emphasizes distribution and reduced control from a single point but does not specifically address operational functionality during breakdowns of some subsystem components. Similarly, a redundant database may have additional copies of data for safety and robustness, but redundancy alone does not guarantee the ongoing functionality in the face of partial system failures like a fault-tolerant database does.