6 disaster recovery site requirements for businesses | TechTarget
Summary
There is a mix of operational and financial needs involved, so the decision to build a physical site should be made with input from internal IT and DR personnel as well as upper management. Recovery time objective, or RTO, denotes how long IT resources can be disrupted before the business starts seeing financial or reputational impact. Senior management will likely have to approve any proposals from DR teams on the function and metrics for the site, so communication between the two parties while determining these factors is critical. The most expensive option is a hot site, which effectively mirrors an organizations main data center in terms of processing, hardware and software, network services, HVAC, power systems, storage systems, floor space to locate equipment racks, work areas for staff, meeting areas and room for storage cabinets. If the site requires staff on-site quickly after an incident, the distance should be close enough for employees to reach within a time frame defined by the organizations disaster recovery plan.