A cold site is a backup site that lacks hardware and technology, making it the least expensive to establish but potentially expensive to operate in an emergency. It is used to resume operations in case of a disaster that damages the primary site. Hot sites are more expensive but have all necessary hardware and technology already on site.
A cold site is a type of backup site that a business or government agency can access if the primary site is destroyed, damaged, or otherwise rendered unusable. Cold sites are generally the least expensive type of backup site to establish, but they are also somewhat less effective than more expensive options that can be up and running within hours of the primary site going out of business. These types of backup sites are often used for businesses and services that use the internet and internal network extensively for day-to-day operations. A cold site typically lacks hardware or technology at the backup site, so it may take days or even weeks for the site to become operational after the loss of a primary site.
The basic purpose of a backup site comes from the idea that a man-made or natural disaster has the potential to cripple a business or government agency by destroying or damaging its primary operating site. In order to minimize the negative impact this type of event would have, a backup site is created for people within the company or agency to move and resume operations. There are generally three types of backup sites: hot sites, cold sites, and hot sites, with a cold site being the least expensive to establish.
A cold site is a backup site that does not already have hardware and equipment for operational use. This means that if a business with an operations staff of 20, each with a computer and two monitors, needs to move to a cold site, they will need to get all the necessary equipment as quickly as possible to the site to resume operations. While a cold site is less expensive to establish, since it’s really just a location and doesn’t have the necessary hardware, it can be very expensive to actually operate in an emergency.
Hot sites are much more expensive to establish and have all the necessary hardware and technology already on site while the main site is still in use. This type of backup site is basically a copy of the primary site and the software can also be used to enable real-time transfer and saving of data from the primary site to the hot site. A hot site is sort of a combination of a hot site and a cold site, with hardware that’s ready to go right out of the box, but potentially less powerful machines, and data backups that can be several days or weeks old.
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