ISC2 CC Practice Question: Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, and Incident Response
Which recovery site strategy provides the shortest recovery time objective (RTO), typically measured in hours, by maintaining a fully mirrored environment that can be activated immediately?
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 fully configured with hardware, software, and real-time data replication, enabling recovery 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.
- ✗
Warm site
Why it's wrong here
A warm site has hardware ready but data and configuration are not fully mirrored, so restoring services takes longer than the immediate activation the scenario demands. It is tempting as a cost-balanced middle ground, and would be correct where an RTO of days, not hours, is acceptable.
- ✗
Reciprocal agreement
Why it's wrong here
A reciprocal agreement borrows another organisation's capacity, which is not guaranteed available during a widespread disaster and requires lengthy setup, so it cannot deliver an hours-level RTO. It is tempting because it costs little, and would suit a low-budget arrangement where both parties accept extended recovery times.
- ✗
Cold site
Why it's wrong here
A cold site holds no pre-installed hardware or replicated data, so everything must be procured and rebuilt after a disaster, producing an RTO of days or weeks rather than hours. It is tempting as the cheapest strategy, and would be correct where cost outweighs urgency and lengthy outages are tolerable.
- ✓
Hot site
Why this is correct
A hot site maintains fully mirrored hardware, software and near-live data replication, so operations resume within hours rather than days. This directly satisfies the stem's shortest-RTO constraint, unlike warm or cold sites, which require restoration or configuration before activation.
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 Planning
Business Continuity Planning is the process of creating a strategy to keep an organization's essential functions running during and after a major disruption.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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