Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)Cloud Platform and Infrastructure SecurityHard
A cloud architect is designing a disaster recovery (DR) strategy for a critical application hosted in a single cloud region. The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for this application is 1 hour, and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 15 minutes. Which of the following DR strategies, combined with appropriate data replication, would BEST meet these objectives?
- AWarm Standby deployment in a different region.
- BBackup and Restore to a different region.
- CPilot Light deployment in a different region.
- DCold Standby deployment in a different region.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Warm Standby deployment in a different region.
A Warm Standby strategy involves maintaining a scaled-down, running version of the application in a secondary region, along with continuous data replication. This allows for a quick failover (meeting 1-hour RTO) and minimal data loss (meeting 15-minute RPO) as the standby environment can be quickly scaled up and promoted to active.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Backup and Restore typically has RTOs of several hours to days and RPOs of hours to a day, far exceeding the stated objectives.
- C. Pilot Light keeps core services running but requires significant provisioning and scaling at the time of disaster, likely exceeding a 1-hour RTO. While RPO could be met with continuous replication, the RTO is challenging.
- D. Cold Standby involves minimal pre-provisioning and requires significant time to provision resources and restore data, making it unsuitable for a 1-hour RTO.
Warm Standby DR
A disaster recovery strategy where a scaled-down but functional copy of the primary environment is maintained in a secondary location with continuous data replication.
- Lower RTO/RPO than backup & restore or pilot light.
- Higher cost than pilot light due to running resources.
- Requires continuous synchronization of data.
Memory trick: For quick recovery, keep it warm and ready, so your systems stay steady.