What term describes having extra components used to support a system in case of component failure?

• A. Redundant Hardware
• B. Load Balancing
• C. Redundancy
• D. Clustering

Answer: (C)

Redundancy is the practice of including extra components or whole systems that can take over when a primary part fails. This approach keeps services available by ensuring there’s a backup ready to step in, reducing downtime and single points of failure. You’ll often see setups with a standby server, duplicate power supplies, or alternate network paths, all designed so the system can keep operating even if one piece stops working. Implementations vary: hot standby means the backup is running and ready to take over immediately, while cold or warm standby means the backup starts up only when needed. In many designs you’ll hear about N+1 configurations, where there is one extra resource to cover a potential failure. Among the options, redundancy best captures the idea of having extra components to support the system during failures; the other terms describe related concepts but not the fundamental idea of backup components ensuring availability.