Nutanix Certified Associate Practice Exam

What is the process called that utilizes a parity calculation to maintain data redundancy and optimize space savings?

1. Data Mirroring

2. Erasure Coding

3. Data Replication

4. Storage Deduplication

The correct answer is: Erasure Coding

The process that utilizes a parity calculation to maintain data redundancy and optimize space savings is known as Erasure Coding. Erasure Coding works by breaking data into fragments, expanding it with redundant data pieces, and storing these pieces across different locations. This method allows for the reconstruction of original data even if some fragments are lost. It uses mathematical algorithms to create parity data, which effectively means that it can recover lost data without having to maintain complete copies of the original data set, leading to significant space savings compared to traditional mirroring techniques. In contrast, Data Mirroring involves creating an exact copy of the data in real-time, which requires more storage space because it simply duplicates the entire dataset. Data Replication refers to copying data from one location to another, usually for backup or disaster recovery purposes, and similarly does not optimize space in the way erasure coding does. Storage Deduplication is a process that eliminates duplicate copies of repeating data to save space, but it does not involve parity calculations or redundancy in the same way that Erasure Coding does. Thus, Erasure Coding is particularly efficient for environments where storing large volumes of data while maximizing storage efficiency is crucial.