What type of redundancy combines physical disks for enhanced performance and reliability?

RAID, which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology that combines multiple physical disks into a single logical unit to improve performance, reliability, and data redundancy. By using various RAID levels, you can achieve different combinations of disk performance and fault tolerance. For example, RAID 0 stripes data across multiple disks to enhance performance, while RAID 1 mirrors data onto another disk to protect against data loss.

The primary function of RAID is to ensure that even if one or more disks fail, the array can continue to operate and, in some cases, retain all stored data. This ability to withstand the failure of one or more drives while maintaining the integrity and availability of data is what makes RAID a popular solution for both performance-oriented and mission-critical applications.

Multipathing involves creating multiple physical connections to a storage resource, which can enhance availability and performance but does not inherently combine disks. Masking refers to controlling access to storage resources, and tiering is a method of managing workloads by placing data on different types of storage media based on performance needs. Both of these options focus more on data management strategies rather than on the physical combination of disks to enhance performance and reliability.