CompTIA Network+ (N10-009)Network OperationsMedium
A financial services firm wants a disaster recovery facility that already has hardware, network connectivity, and environmental systems in place, but data and applications must be restored from recent backups before the site becomes operational. The firm wants to balance ongoing cost against recovery speed. Which site type best fits this requirement?
- ACold site
- BWarm site
- CHot site
- DReciprocal site
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Warm site
A warm site has pre-installed hardware and connectivity but requires data restoration from backups, making it faster to activate than a cold site but cheaper to maintain than a hot site that is fully synchronized and ready.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. A cold site has only space and power, requiring full equipment installation, taking much longer to activate.
- C. A hot site is fully mirrored and ready with near-real-time data, at much higher cost.
- D. A reciprocal site is an informal agreement to share another organization's facility, not a standard tiered DR site.
DR Site Tiers
Hot, warm, and cold sites represent increasing recovery time and decreasing cost for disaster recovery facilities.
- Hot site: fully mirrored, near-instant failover, highest cost
- Warm site: hardware/connectivity ready, data must be restored
- Cold site: bare facility only, longest recovery time, lowest cost
Memory trick: Hot=ready now, Warm=almost ready, Cold=empty shell.