N10-009 Question 215
Single answer3.3 Explain disaster recovery (DR) concepts.A regional medical clinic is updating its disaster recovery plan for the network that supports electronic health records, VoIP, and remote access for providers. Management states that after a site outage, patient records must be available again within 1 hour, but the organization can tolerate losing up to 15 minutes of recently entered data. Which disaster recovery approach BEST meets these requirements?
- A
Implement a warm site with data replication to a secondary location every 15 minutes
- B
Implement a cold site and perform nightly backups to tape for offsite storage
- C
Implement a hot site with weekly full backups stored in the primary data center
- D
Implement a business continuity tabletop exercise twice per year without adding alternate processing capability
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
This question tests application of two core disaster recovery concepts: recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). The required availability within 1 hour maps to the RTO, and the acceptable loss of up to 15 minutes of data maps to the RPO. A warm site with 15-minute replication is the best fit because it balances restoration speed and data currency. A cold site is typically too slow for a 1-hour RTO, while a hot site with inadequate backup frequency still fails the RPO. In CompTIA Network+ objectives, candidates are expected to distinguish between hot, warm, and cold sites and apply RTO/RPO appropriately in business scenarios. Best practices from disaster recovery planning guidance, including NIST contingency planning principles, emphasize matching recovery solutions to business requirements for both downtime and data loss.
- A. Correct.
Correct. This option aligns the solution with both key disaster recovery metrics in the scenario: an RTO of 1 hour and an RPO of 15 minutes. A warm site provides partially ready infrastructure that can be brought online faster than a cold site, often within the required recovery window if properly planned and tested. Replicating data every 15 minutes supports the stated tolerance for data loss. This is a practical balance between cost and recovery capability.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A cold site has little or no preconfigured equipment and usually requires significant time to restore operations, making a 1-hour recovery time objective unrealistic in most environments. Nightly tape backups also create an RPO closer to many hours, not 15 minutes. This option reflects a common misconception that offsite backups alone satisfy aggressive DR targets.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A hot site could support a very fast recovery time, but the backup strategy in this option does not meet the data loss requirement. Weekly full backups could result in losing days of data, far exceeding the 15-minute tolerance. Candidates may pick this because hot sites are associated with rapid recovery, but RPO must also be satisfied.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Tabletop exercises are useful for validating plans and staff readiness, but they do not provide alternate infrastructure or data protection by themselves. This option improves planning maturity, not actual recovery capability. It does not meet either the 1-hour restoration requirement or the 15-minute data loss requirement.