ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)Business Continuity (BC), Disaster Recovery (DR) & Incident Response (IR) ConceptsEasy
A critical server fails due to a hardware malfunction. The operations team immediately switches over to a redundant server that was already running in parallel and processing the same data. This scenario BEST exemplifies which of the following?
- AData replication strategy
- BHigh availability
- CDisaster recovery plan activation
- DCold site recovery
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. High availability
High availability refers to a system's ability to remain operational for an extended period without human intervention, often achieved through redundant components and automatic failover, as described in the scenario.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Data replication is a component of this, but the overall system's ability to stay online is high availability.
- C. While part of DR, the immediate, automatic switch to a running parallel server specifically describes high availability.
- D. Cold site recovery involves manual setup and long RTO, not immediate switchover.
High Availability (HA)
A characteristic of a system, which aims to ensure an agreed level of operational performance for a higher than normal period, often through redundant components and automatic failover mechanisms.
- Minimizes downtime for critical systems.
- Uses redundancy (hardware, networks, power).
- Often involves automatic failover.
Memory trick: HA: Highly Available, Always Active.