A payments system needs RTO under 15 minutes and RPO under 1 minute in a second Region, but finance rejects the cost of full capacity standby. Which DR strategy fits the budget and targets?
A.Backup and restore
Backup/restore RTO is typically hours — misses 15 minutes.
B.Pilot light
Pilot light keeps only data/core infra live — spin-up usually exceeds 15 min.
C.Warm standby
Correct. Minimum capacity live + scale-up hits both targets cheaper than active/active.
D.Multi-site active/active
Active/active meets the SLA but is the most expensive — rejected by the budget.
Why this answer
Warm standby runs a scaled-down but functional copy in the DR Region — data replicated live meets RPO<1min, and scaling up on failover meets a ~15min RTO at far less than full-capacity cost. Pilot light (core components only, off) takes longer to start; backup/restore is hours.
Correct answer: C · Last reviewed 2026-10-26
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