Questions for Global Accelerator (ACC) and Route53 Health Checks (HC) and Application Recovery Controller (ARC)

1. Global Accelerator does not assume there is a standby environment already created. It works with the endpoints you configure, which can be in multiple regions. Global Accelerator continuously monitors the health of all endpoints and directs traffic to healthy endpoints. You have the flexibility to set up your architecture as active-active or active-standby, but Global Accelerator itself doesn't create or manage standby environments.

2. Route 53 Application Recovery Controller (ARC) does not assume there is a second hosted zone with matching DNS records. ARC works with routing controls that are integrated with Route 53 health checks. These routing controls act as on-off switches to redirect traffic between regional replicas. You would typically set up DNS failover records associated with domain names that front your application replicas in each region, but ARC itself doesn't create or require a separate hosted zone.

3. The main differences between Route 53 Application Recovery Controller (ARC) and Global Accelerator for disaster recovery are:

   • ARC is designed for complex, multi-region applications and provides more granular control over failover processes.
   • ARC uses routing controls integrated with Route 53 health checks to manage traffic routing.
   • ARC provides readiness checks and insights into recovery readiness.
   • Global Accelerator uses anycast IP addresses and the AWS global network to route traffic to the optimal endpoint.
   • Global Accelerator provides automatic failover based on endpoint health and supports traffic distribution using weights and traffic dials.

4. Global Accelerator is not directly tied into a hosted zone or DNS records. It provides static IP addresses that serve as entry points for your application. You would typically create a DNS record in your hosted zone that points to these Global Accelerator IP addresses. Global Accelerator then handles routing to your endpoints based on health, location, and other factors, without further interaction with DNS.

Both solutions can be effective for disaster recovery, but they operate at different levels and offer different capabilities. The choice between them would depend on your specific application architecture and requirements.
Sources
Routing Control - Route 53 Application Recovery Controller - AWS
How AWS Global Accelerator works - AWS Global Accelerator
Routing control in ARC - Amazon Application Recovery Controller (ARC)