A workload requires recovery in a second Region with RTO under 1 hour and near-zero RPO, but full multi-site active/active is too expensive. Which DR strategy best balances these requirements?
A.Backup and restore from nightly snapshots
Backup and restore has RTO measured in hours-to-days and RPO tied to snapshot frequency — too slow.
B.Pilot light
Pilot light keeps only core data replicated; provisioning the full stack at failover typically exceeds a 1-hour RTO for non-trivial systems.
C.Warm standby with a scaled-down functional copy running in the DR Region and continuous data replication
Correct. Warm standby meets sub-hour RTO/near-zero RPO cheaper than active/active.
D.Multi-site active/active in two Regions
Active/active meets the requirements but the question states it is too expensive.
Why this answer
Warm standby runs a reduced-capacity but fully functional copy in the DR Region with continuous replication, so failover requires only scaling up — achieving sub-hour RTO and near-zero RPO at lower cost than active/active.
Correct answer: C · Last reviewed 2026-10-25
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