ISC2 Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) Practice Question

A cold site is an alternate facility that provides only basic infrastructure such as raised floor space, power, environmental controls, and network connectivity. Customer hardware, software, and data are not prestaged and must be brought in or restored after a disaster is declared, resulting in the longest recovery time (often 72 hours or more) but the lowest recurring cost.

A warm site maintains some preinstalled hardware and possibly recent data replicas, so it reduces recovery time but incurs higher costs than a cold site. A hot site is fully equipped and kept up to date, enabling near-immediate failover at the highest cost. A reciprocal agreement relies on another organization's facilities; although inexpensive, it introduces significant availability and coordination risks and still may lack guaranteed space or resources when needed. Therefore, the cold site is the most appropriate choice for a four-day RTO with strict cost constraints.