220-1102 Question 669
Single answerBackup planA small accounting office stores client spreadsheets on a Windows file server. The office manager says the company can lose no more than one business day's worth of data, and the server must be recoverable even if the building is damaged by fire. The office has limited bandwidth after hours and wants to keep backup time as short as possible. Which backup plan BEST meets these requirements?
- A
Perform a full backup to a local USB drive once per month only
- B
Perform a full backup every night to an on-site NAS only
- C
Perform a weekly full backup with daily incremental backups, and replicate the backups to an off-site cloud location
- D
Perform daily differential backups only and store them on a second internal drive in the same server
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The best answer is the plan that satisfies both the business recovery requirements and the operational constraints. The statement that the company can lose no more than one business day's worth of data points to a recovery point objective (RPO) of about 24 hours, so backups must occur at least daily. The requirement to recover even if the building is damaged means the backup plan must include off-site storage or replication. Because the office has limited bandwidth and wants short backup windows, incremental backups are more efficient than nightly full backups because they capture only changes since the last backup. A common best practice is the 3-2-1 backup approach: keep at least 3 copies of data, on 2 different media, with 1 copy off-site. Weekly full backups plus daily incrementals replicated off-site align well with that guidance and are consistent with practical small-business backup planning.
- A. Incorrect.
This is incorrect because a monthly full backup does not meet the requirement to lose no more than one business day of data. It also stores backups only locally, so a fire or other site disaster could destroy both the server and the backup media. Someone might choose this because it is simple, but it fails both the recovery point and off-site protection requirements.
- B. Incorrect.
This is incorrect because nightly full backups could meet the one-day data loss requirement, but they do not address disaster recovery if the building is damaged. In addition, doing a full backup every night uses more backup time and storage than necessary, which conflicts with the requirement to keep backup time as short as possible. This option reflects the common misconception that frequent on-site backups alone are sufficient.
- C. Correct.
This is correct because a weekly full backup combined with daily incremental backups reduces nightly backup time and bandwidth usage compared with nightly full backups. Daily backups support a recovery point objective of about one business day, and replicating the backup set off-site protects the organization if the building is lost due to fire or another disaster. This is a practical and commonly recommended approach for small businesses balancing recovery needs with limited resources.
- D. Incorrect.
This is incorrect because differential backups depend on a baseline full backup; differential backups alone are not a complete backup strategy. Storing them on a second internal drive in the same server also does not protect against server hardware failure, theft, or fire affecting the whole system. A candidate might pick this because differential backups can simplify restores, but the option still fails the off-site and resiliency requirements.