Episode 96: Disaster Recovery Site Considerations (Domain 3)

Disaster recovery planning ensures that when critical infrastructure goes offline—whether due to cyberattack, natural disaster, or hardware failure—business operations can resume with minimal disruption. In this episode, we focus on the different types of recovery sites: hot, warm, and cold. Hot sites are fully functional environments that mirror production and allow near-instant failover; warm sites offer partial infrastructure requiring some configuration before becoming operational; and cold sites provide only basic facilities, requiring full setup during an emergency. We also explore the importance of geographic diversity, power independence, and regular testing of failover processes. A good disaster recovery plan includes not just hardware and bandwidth, but people, processes, documentation, and up-to-date configurations. Organizations that fail to plan for disaster recovery often find themselves rebuilding from scratch instead of resuming operations. Recovery sites are your plan B—and they need to be as secure and reliable as your plan A.