DRI Recovery Strategy & Planning 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following best describes a 'warm site' in disaster recovery planning?
- A site with no equipment that must be fully built out after a disaster
- A fully operational duplicate of the primary site
- A partially equipped site that requires some setup time before use (Correct answer)
- A mobile trailer with portable computing equipment
Correct answer: A partially equipped site that requires some setup time before use
A warm site has some equipment pre-installed and may have partial connectivity but requires additional configuration before it can host full operations.
Question 2: During strategy development, the BCP team determines that a critical process requires a 2-hour RTO. Which alternate site type is LEAST likely to meet this requirement?
- Hot site
- Warm site
- Cloud-based failover
- Cold site (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Cold site
Cold sites have no pre-installed equipment and require days to weeks of setup, making them incompatible with a 2-hour RTO.
Question 3: What is the main risk associated with using a reciprocal agreement as a recovery strategy?
- High recurring cost
- Both organizations may be affected by the same regional disaster (Correct answer)
- Difficulty in testing the arrangement
- Lack of vendor support
Correct answer: Both organizations may be affected by the same regional disaster
If both companies share geographic proximity, a regional event like a hurricane could disable both sites simultaneously, leaving neither able to host the other.
Question 4: Which recovery strategy element ensures that manual workarounds exist if automated systems cannot be restored within the MTD?
- Succession planning
- Interim or manual processing procedures (Correct answer)
- Vendor SLA agreements
- Offsite media storage
Correct answer: Interim or manual processing procedures
Interim manual procedures provide a fallback when technology recovery exceeds acceptable downtime limits, keeping operations running without automated systems.
Question 5: When documenting recovery strategies, which of the following should be included to address staffing during a sustained disaster?
- Insurance policy numbers
- Employee cross-training and succession plans (Correct answer)
- Hardware replacement costs
- Vendor payment terms
Correct answer: Employee cross-training and succession plans
Cross-training and succession plans ensure that critical functions can be performed by backup personnel when primary staff are unavailable during extended disruptions.
Question 6: A financial services firm needs to recover its trading platform with zero data loss. Which replication approach best supports this requirement?
- Daily tape backup
- Asynchronous replication
- Synchronous replication (Correct answer)
- Weekly full backup with daily incrementals
Correct answer: Synchronous replication
Synchronous replication writes data to both primary and secondary sites simultaneously, ensuring zero data loss (RPO of zero).
Question 7: In DRI's Professional Practices, which subject area specifically addresses the process of identifying and implementing strategies to prevent or reduce disruptions?
- Information Technology
- Crisis Communications
- Proactive and Preventive Mitigation Strategies (Correct answer)
- Emergency Response and Operations
Correct answer: Proactive and Preventive Mitigation Strategies
DRI's Professional Practice 5 — Proactive and Preventive Mitigation Strategies — focuses on reducing risk and minimizing the impact of potential disruptions before they occur.
DRI Recovery Strategy & Planning 3
Which of the following best describes a 'warm site' in disaster recovery planning?