What data storage solution ensures REST access, allows for 20 independent tables, and minimizes costs while providing geo-replication?

The correct answer focuses on the use of tables in an Azure Storage account that utilize geo-redundant storage (GRS). This solution effectively meets the criteria by providing REST access and allowing for multiple independent tables within a storage account, which can lower infrastructure costs compared to traditional databases.

Azure Storage offers durability and high availability through GRS, which replicates your data to a secondary region, ensuring geo-replication. This is particularly important for business continuity and disaster recovery. The ability to access data via REST APIs means that the solution is platform-agnostic and can easily integrate with various technologies and applications.

While other options may offer features such as active geo-replication or read-access geo-redundant storage, they typically come with an added complexity or higher costs associated with database services. Azure SQL Database, although powerful, often incurs additional costs and limits on the number of databases per elastic pool, which may not be as economically efficient when you only need independent table structures. Hence, the chosen solution provides a balance of cost, simplicity, and required functionality, making it the best fit.