ISC2 CC Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response Practice Question
A company's business continuity plan includes an alternate work site with full IT capabilities. Which type of recovery site does this describe?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between hot, warm, and cold sites by emphasizing the 'full IT capabilities' phrase—candidates may confuse a warm site (which has some equipment) with a hot site, but the key differentiator is that a hot site is fully operational and ready for immediate use, while a warm site requires additional setup.
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
✓
Hot site
A hot site is a fully equipped alternate work site with all necessary IT infrastructure—servers, networking, telecommunications, and power—ready to take over operations immediately. The question specifies 'full IT capabilities,' which aligns with the hot site's purpose of enabling rapid failover with minimal downtime, typically within hours.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Hot site
Why this is correct
A hot site is a fully equipped alternate facility with hardware, connectivity and data already operational, enabling near-immediate resumption. It satisfies the full IT capabilities requirement because recovery needs no equipment provisioning or restoration from backup, unlike warm or cold sites.
- ✗
Mobile site
Why it's wrong here
A mobile site is a transportable trailer or container used when a fixed alternate facility is unavailable; it is defined by mobility, not by being a permanently equipped full-capability site. It is tempting because mobile sites can be fully provisioned. The scenario's fixed alternate site with full IT is a hot site.
- ✗
Cold site
Why it's wrong here
A cold site offers only basic space, power and network cabling, with no pre-installed systems, so it cannot deliver full IT capabilities without major build-out. It is tempting as the cheapest continuity option. The scenario describes a hot site, which is fully equipped and ready.
- ✗
Warm site
Why it's wrong here
A warm site provides partial equipment and connectivity, requiring installation and data restoration before operations resume, so it lacks the full IT capabilities described. It is tempting because warm sites balance cost and recovery time. The scenario's fully equipped alternate site is a hot site.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Key term
Recovery
Recovery is the process of restoring systems, data, and operations after a security incident, failure, or disaster to return to normal functioning.
Key term
Business continuity
Business continuity is the capability of an organization to continue delivering essential services during and after a disruptive event.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CC practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CC exam.