What is the main purpose of Availability Zones (AZs) in AWS?

The primary function of Availability Zones (AZs) in AWS is to ensure fault tolerance and high availability for applications and services. Each AZ is a distinct location within a region, designed to be isolated from failures in other AZs. By distributing resources across multiple AZs, organizations can avoid downtime caused by hardware failures, power outages, or other issues that could affect a single location.

When an application or service is architected to use multiple AZs, it can automatically failover to another AZ in the event of an outage. This capability allows businesses to maintain continuous operations and minimize the impact of potential disruptions. Consequently, deploying resources in multiple AZs enhances the resilience of applications, ensuring that they can withstand a variety of adverse circumstances.

The other options do not capture the core function of AZs as effectively. While consolidating resources may lead to reduced costs, that isn't the main purpose of AZs. Similarly, enabling higher storage capacity or centralizing access management are not functions associated with the design and intention of Availability Zones. Instead, the architecture of AZs directly focuses on providing a robust framework for maintaining service availability and resilience.