ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)Business Continuity (BC), Disaster Recovery (DR) & Incident Response (IR) ConceptsMedium
A large e-commerce company is designing its disaster recovery plan. They require a secondary site that can be activated within minutes or hours, with all necessary hardware, software, and up-to-date data available immediately. This site must be fully functional and ready to take over operations with minimal disruption. Which type of alternate site best meets these stringent requirements?
- AHot site
- BMobile site
- CWarm site
- DCold site
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Hot site
A hot site is a fully equipped, continuously updated, and ready-to-operate facility that can take over critical functions almost immediately after a disaster, meeting the requirement for activation within minutes or hours with up-to-date data.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. A mobile site is a portable facility, which might be useful but typically doesn't offer the immediate, full-scale operational readiness of a dedicated hot site.
- C. A warm site has some equipment and connectivity but needs significant setup and data restoration, taking days to become operational.
- D. A cold site has basic infrastructure but no equipment or data, requiring days or weeks to become operational.
Hot Site
A fully equipped, operational, and continuously updated alternate site that can take over critical business functions with minimal downtime after a disaster.
- Fully operational with hardware, software, and data
- Ready for immediate activation (minutes/hours)
- Highest cost among alternate sites
Memory trick: Cold, Warm, Hot: Getting hotter means getting faster to recover.