Does BigQuery automatically replicate data across zones/regions?

Question

I'm reading through BigQuery doc and I'm confused by the point quoted below.

Source: Google Doc

BigQuery transparently and automatically provides highly durable, replicated storage in multiple locations and high availability with no extra charge and no additional setup.

Source: Google Doc

BigQuery does not automatically provide a backup or replica of your data in another geographic region. You can create cross-region dataset copies to enhance your disaster recovery strategy.

1. Does BigQuery automatically replicate data across zones/regions?
2. For long term data storage, given the options of Big Table, Big Query and Regional Persistent Disk, is it preferable to use Regional Persistent Disk to automatically replicate data across different geographical location?

Answer 1

1. Yes, BigQuery automatically replicates data across zones/regions.

It's the part of Google doc

In either case, BigQuery automatically stores copies of your data in two different Google Cloud zones within the selected location.

But as you read, I think that you're missing some information. it mentions a hard regional failure.

What is hard regional failure? as Google Doc describe,

Hard failure is an operational deficiency where hardware is destroyed. Hard failures are more severe than soft failures. Hard failure examples include damage from floods, terrorist attacks, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

For example, in Asia-east1 (Taiwan), earthquake occurrence is quite frequent, if you're creating a dataset in this region, you might consider cross-region dataset copies to enhance your disaster recovery strategy.

2. I think that you can export your table data to GCS for long term data storage

Because there are some storage classes. For example,

Archive Storage is the lowest-cost, highly durable storage service for data archiving, online backup, and disaster recovery.