SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a critical application to AWS and wants to ensure business continuity during the cutover. The migration plan includes a pilot light strategy. Which of the following BEST describes the pilot light pattern?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the pilot light pattern with the warm standby pattern, as both involve a running environment in AWS, but pilot light uses a minimal stack that is not fully functional until scaled up, whereas warm standby runs a fully functional scaled-down version.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Replicate data to AWS and run a minimal version of the application that can be scaled up during cutover.
The pilot light pattern is a disaster recovery strategy where core data is continuously replicated to AWS, and a minimal version of the application (e.g., a small EC2 instance running the application stack) is kept running. During cutover, this minimal environment is rapidly scaled up to full production capacity. This matches option C, as it describes replicating data and running a minimal version that can be scaled up.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Take regular backups and restore them in AWS during cutover.
Why it's wrong here
Backup-and-restore recreates the workload only at cutover, so no core services run continuously in AWS; pilot light keeps a scaled-down copy of the application's core components always running and scales them up during failover. It tempts because backups suit low-RPO archival recovery, not rapid continuity.
- ✗
Run a scaled-down but fully functional version of the environment in AWS at all times.
Why it's wrong here
A scaled-down but fully functional environment describes a warm standby, where all components run continuously; pilot light keeps only core services such as databases and identity running, scaling the rest on demand. It is tempting because warm standby is the correct mechanism when near-immediate recovery with minimal scaling delay is required.
- ✓
Replicate data to AWS and run a minimal version of the application that can be scaled up during cutover.
Why this is correct
Replicating data continuously and running only a minimal core of the application satisfies the pilot light requirement: a small always-on footprint that can be scaled up rapidly during cutover. This differs from warm standby, which runs a fully functional but scaled-down copy, and from backup-and-restore, which provisions nothing until disaster.
- ✗
Run the application simultaneously in both environments and route traffic to both.
Why it's wrong here
Running both environments simultaneously with traffic to both describes an active-active or multi-site pattern, not pilot light, which keeps only core services running and scales the rest on failover. It is tempting because simultaneous dual-environment operation is the correct mechanism for zero-downtime continuous availability.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAP-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SAP-C02 exam.