Which Disaster Recovery Site Best Fits Non-Critical Apps with Short Downtime?

N10-009 By islever Editorial Last updated

Short answer

C Warm

Question

A company wants to implement a disaster recovery site for non-critical applications, which can tolerate a short period of downtime. Which of the following types of sites should the company implement to achieve this goal?
  1. Hot
  2. Cold
  3. Warm Correct Answer
  4. Passive

Key Takeaways

Tests the ability to align Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) with site readiness levels, commonly trapping candidates who assume lower-cost options automatically meet short downtime requirements.

Learn how to match business continuity requirements to the correct disaster recovery site tier based on downtime tolerance and budget constraints. Community consensus strongly identifies the warm site as the optimal choice for non-critical workloads requiring moderate recovery times.

Common mistake: Candidates frequently choose Cold sites because they are the most cost-effective option, failing to recognize that cold sites lack pre-installed hardware and current data, resulting in recovery delays that exceed the allowed short downtime window.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

A warm disaster recovery site provides a balanced solution by maintaining essential infrastructure and network connectivity while requiring limited configuration and data restoration before operations resume. This setup typically allows organizations to recover within hours, perfectly aligning with the short downtime tolerance specified in the scenario. It strikes the ideal compromise between rapid failover capability and manageable operational costs for non-critical applications.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Hot sites maintain fully synchronized environments ready for instant failover, making them unnecessarily expensive for non-critical systems that do not demand zero downtime. Cold sites consist only of basic facility space and power, requiring extensive hardware procurement and software installation that pushes recovery timelines well beyond a short window. Passive sites generally refer to standby configurations that still require active activation protocols, and they are not recognized as a standard DR tier in CompTIA’s framework for this specific use case.

Community Comment Notes

The overwhelming majority of voters correctly selected the warm site, reinforcing its status as the standard certification answer for moderate RTO scenarios. Several users highlighted that warm sites retain physical resources and network gear but lack live data, which directly supports the short-but-not-instant recovery timeline. One dissenting comment incorrectly advocated for cold sites based solely on cost savings, but other contributors clarified that cold facilities cannot meet the explicit short downtime requirement outlined in the prompt.

Exam Strategy

Always prioritize the stated Recovery Time Objective (RTO) over budget considerations when answering disaster recovery questions. Map immediate failover needs to hot sites, multi-hour recovery windows to warm sites, and extended outages tolerable by non-essential systems to cold sites.

Community Votes

C
100%

100% of anonymous learners picked answer C. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 4 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 4

  1. TreyPar3 👍 4 Answered C
    C. Warm Explanation: A warm site is suitable for non-critical applications that can tolerate a short period of downtime. Warm sites typically have some infrastructure and equipment already in place, but they may need additional setup or data synchronization before they can be fully operational. This makes warm sites a balanced choice for companies that need faster recovery than a cold site but do not require the immediate availability of a hot site.
  2. ba4cbc8 👍 3 Answered C
    Warm Sites are sites that include a small amount of downtime and have the services that can be started within a short time. Hot sites are available immediately as they constantly keep the same standards as the main workcenter. Cold sites typically require more extensive updates/personnel to go to the installation and take a slightly longer time than a warm site to become operational.
  3. HeatSquad77 👍 1 Answered C
    C. warm site Facility with all of the physical resources, computers, and network infrastructure to recover from a primary site disaster. A warm site does not have current backup data and it may take a day or more to recover and install backups before business operations can recommence.
  4. b82faaf 👍 1 Answered B
    Cold sites are cost-effective and suitable for non-critical applications that can tolerate a short period of downtime, making them ideal for this scenario.

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