Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Reciprocal
Reserve
Commercial
8.15.3.1
Hot Site Solution: Dedicated
A hot site contains all the necessary computing equipment and software within
a production-ready infrastructure. Delay between disaster and resumption opera-
tions is obtaining backup media and recovering the latest production data.
8.15.3.2
Warm Site Solution: Shared (Warm)
A warm site contains partial computing equipment and software within a pro-
duction-ready infrastructure. Delay between disaster and resumption operations is
obtaining and installing company-specific equipment as well as backup media and
recovering the latest production data. Warm site benefits over hot site include the
potential to share the site among multiple companies; each brings its own special-
ized equipment in the event of disaster. Drawbacks include a regional disaster that
causes contention for warm site space.
8.15.3.3
Cold Site Solution
The cold site strategy provides a physical infrastructure (building, data center, raised
floor) with supporting utilities (e.g., electric, phone lines, HVAC) but with no com-
puting equipment. The site is ready to receive replacement computing equipment in
the event of disaster. An implication of cold site is the delay inherent in equipment
procurement, shipping, receipt, installation, testing, and data recovery.
8.15.3.4
Development Environment
The development facility is a tempting choice to use for production disaster recov-
ery; after all, this is where the production systems were created. Some organizations
may view the development environment investment as a disaster recovery by-prod-
uct. This is not a good idea for many reasons. Developers become unproductive,
and this is an expensive resource held up for an indeterminate amount of time.
Moreover, a development environment is typically unstable; full of experimental
this and that, it rarely reflects the more static production environment.
8.15.3.5
Reciprocal Agreement
This is where two or more organizations offer spare production capacity to each
other as disaster recovery space. Aside from the obvious technical differences
