Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery Strategies

Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies, including hot, warm, and cold sites, vary in cost, recovery time, and level of preparedness. Hot DR provides immediate recovery with minimal downtime, while cold DR offers the lowest cost but requires significant setup.

Hot DR

A fully operational backup environment running alongside the primary site with continuous data synchronization and active applications. Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is near zero to a few minutes, and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) ensures minimal data loss. This setup provides rapid recovery with minimal downtime, perfect for critical systems where downtime is not an option, such as in financial or healthcare sectors.

Warm DR

A standby environment partially set up to take over during a disaster, with periodic data synchronization. Applications may need configuration to become fully operational. RTO is hours to a day, and RPO allows for hours to a day of data loss. This option balances cost and recovery time, suitable for important but non-critical applications where some downtime is acceptable.

Cold DR

A Cold Disaster Recovery (Cold DR) site is a backup environment that isn't immediately operational, requiring significant setup before it can function. It has a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of days to weeks and an RPO of several days to weeks, resulting in potential data loss. While it offers the lowest cost, resources are not continuously active. This solution is suited for non-essential applications where downtime is acceptable, and cost savings are prioritized. It is often used for environments with minimal need for immediate recovery.