ISC2 CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)Security OperationsHard

An organization is preparing for a potential large-scale power outage during a severe weather event. They have invested in redundant power generators, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), and have a warm-site data center in a geographically separate location. The warm-site is configured with hardware and network connectivity, but requires manual data restoration and application configuration. This entire strategy is an example of which recovery strategy?

  1. ACold Site
  2. BWarm Site
  3. CHot Site
  4. DMirror Site
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B. Warm Site

A warm site provides a balance between cost and recovery time. It has necessary hardware and network infrastructure but requires manual intervention for data restoration and application configuration, distinguishing it from a fully synchronized hot site and a bare-bones cold site.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. A Cold Site is a basic facility with space and power but no equipment, requiring significant time to become operational.
  • C. A Hot Site is fully equipped and synchronized, allowing for near-instantaneous failover with minimal data loss.
  • D. A Mirror Site (or active-active hot site) is a fully redundant, real-time synchronized environment, offering continuous operations.

Warm Site

A warm site is a type of disaster recovery site that has essential hardware and network connectivity pre-installed, but requires data to be restored from backups and applications to be configured, leading to a recovery time of hours to days.

  • Balance of cost and recovery speed.
  • Hardware and network in place.
  • Requires data and application setup post-disaster.

Memory trick: Hot is 'Ready Now'; Warm is 'Ready Soon'; Cold is 'Start from Scratch'.

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