This CC practice question tests your understanding of business continuity, dr & incident response. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company's business continuity plan requires a maximum tolerable downtime of 2 hours for the ERP system. The current backup process takes 3 hours to restore. Which of the following is the BEST corrective action?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Reduce RTO to 1 hour
Why wrong: Simply stating a lower RTO does not change the actual recovery capability.
Increase backup frequency
Why wrong: More frequent backups do not speed up the restore process.
Implement synchronous replication
Synchronous replication ensures data is mirrored in real-time, allowing near-instant failover.
Perform restoration testing quarterly
Why wrong: Testing verifies capability but does not reduce restore time.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Implement synchronous replication
The maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) is 2 hours, but the current restore process takes 3 hours, which exceeds the MTD. Synchronous replication writes data to both primary and secondary storage simultaneously, ensuring that the secondary copy is always current and can be failed over to in seconds or minutes, not hours. This reduces the recovery time objective (RTO) to well under the required 2 hours, directly addressing the gap.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Reduce RTO to 1 hour
Why it's wrong here
Simply stating a lower RTO does not change the actual recovery capability.
Increase backup frequency
Why it's wrong here
More frequent backups do not speed up the restore process.
Implement synchronous replication
Why this is correct
Synchronous replication ensures data is mirrored in real-time, allowing near-instant failover.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Perform restoration testing quarterly
Why it's wrong here
Testing verifies capability but does not reduce restore time.
Common exam traps
ISC2 often tests the distinction between RTO and RPO, and the trap here is that candidates confuse backup frequency (which affects RPO) with restore speed (which affects RTO), leading them to incorrectly choose Option B.
Detailed technical explanation
Synchronous replication typically uses protocols like iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or NVMe-oF with a write acknowledgment from the secondary site before confirming to the application, ensuring zero data loss (RPO=0). In real-world scenarios, this is often deployed over dedicated low-latency links (e.g., dark fiber) to avoid application performance degradation, as the write latency is additive. For ERP systems with high transaction rates, asynchronous replication might be considered if latency is a concern, but synchronous is the only option that guarantees the secondary copy is immediately consistent and ready for failover within seconds.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A security analyst at a medium-sized enterprise encounters this scenario during an investigation or architecture review. The correct answer reflects best practice for the specific threat or control described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Security exam questions test whether you can match controls to threats in context — not just recall definitions.
What to study next
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FAQ
Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response — This question tests Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Implement synchronous replication — The maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) is 2 hours, but the current restore process takes 3 hours, which exceeds the MTD. Synchronous replication writes data to both primary and secondary storage simultaneously, ensuring that the secondary copy is always current and can be failed over to in seconds or minutes, not hours. This reduces the recovery time objective (RTO) to well under the required 2 hours, directly addressing the gap.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
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