{"id":3047,"date":"2016-01-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otava.test\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/"},"modified":"2016-01-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T00:00:00","slug":"what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the difference between a cold, warm and hot disaster recovery site?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Disaster<\/a>We\u2019ve just launched our latest white paper on Disaster Recovery<\/a><\/strong>! This white paper is ideal for executives and IT decision-makers seeking a primer as well as up-to-date information regarding disaster recovery best practices and specific technology recommendations, including Disaster Recovery as a Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download the Disaster Recovery white paper<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read below for an excerpt about Disaster Recovery:<\/p>\n

We all know the importance of disaster recovery as it relates to business continuity<\/a> and HIPAA compliance<\/a>. However, there is a lot more to disaster recovery<\/a>, and not all recovery options are created equal. Different kinds of disaster recovery are dependent on the needs of your business. In this post, we\u2019ll talk about how the speed at which\u00a0you need to recover your data and infrastructure affects your recovery site options and cost.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the speed of recovering your data, there are three different types of disaster recovery: cold, warm, and hot sites. Each describes the people and infrastructure required to get a backup site up and running as well as the time it takes to fully recover. Let\u2019s use the analogy of driving a car.<\/p>\n

A cold site<\/strong> is as if you had a\u00a0spare, bare-bones car parked in the garage at home. When your car breaks down, you have to call a friend to get your other car and bring it to you. You and the friend may have to coordinate the logistics of getting extra keys for the car. No matter what, it\u2019s going to take a long time before your new ride arrives, so be prepared to wait a while. In IT terms, this equates to a site where there is little or no\u00a0hardware set up when a disaster strikes. You\u2019re saving a lot of money by not having equipment set up and running, but it will take a formidable amount of time to get your site back online.<\/p>\n

A warm site<\/strong> is as if you\u2019re driving on the road and your extra car is following behind you. However, it could have gotten stuck at a few lights and be several miles behind you; therefore, it could take a little while to catch up to you. Your extra car won\u2019t be as fancy as your current one (no heated seats or satellite radio), but there is gas in the tank and the engine works, which is really all you need until you can get your current car fixed and running again. Similarly, a warm site recovery means you have hardware and network connections established from your site to a second site, but they are not equal. Your recovery will still be delayed while you retrieve your data from your remote backup site.<\/p>\n

A hot site<\/strong> is as if it\u2019s imperative you get to your destination on time and can\u2019t afford any delays whatsoever. You also aren\u2019t willing to give up your extra features, (maybe you\u2019re driving the president) and if your current car breaks down, you need a near-exact replica. You\u2019ve got your extra car in the lane next to you, driving the same speed. If you break down, it\u2019s right there to get you out of a jam, but you\u2019re essentially paying for two fancy cars, not to mention the gas (premium, most likely), you need to keep them both on the road, which will be quite expensive. When it comes to your data, a hot site is a complete copy of your production site, including personnel, network systems, power grids and almost instant backups of your data. There is very minimal downtime when moving from the host site to the backup one.<\/p>\n

The idea of having real time synchronization is enticing, but because it\u2019s so expensive, it\u2019s important to weigh the benefits.<\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019ve learned about different types of disaster recovery sites\u00a0for your data, what\u2019s next? In a future post, we\u2019ll talk about the different systems you can use to transfer data.<\/p>\n

<\/span>What’s the cost of downtime?<\/span><\/h3>\n

When your business is down, you know it costs you money. But how much, exactly? Use our downtime calculator<\/a>, powered by Zerto, to determine how expensive an outage would be in minutes, hours and days, based on your employee size and revenue. The answer may help you determine what kind of disaster recovery site is best for you.<\/p>\n

\"Zerto<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve just launched our latest white paper on Disaster Recovery! This white paper is ideal for executives and IT decision-makers seeking a primer as well as up-to-date information regarding disaster recovery best practices and specific technology recommendations, including Disaster Recovery as a Service. Download the Disaster Recovery white paper. Read below for an excerpt about Disaster Recovery: We all know the importance of disaster recovery as it relates to business continuity and HIPAA compliance. However, there is a lot more to disaster recovery, and not all recovery options are created equal. Different kinds of disaster recovery are dependent on the needs of your business. In this post, we\u2019ll talk about how the speed at which\u00a0you need to recover your data and infrastructure affects your recovery site options and cost. When it comes to the speed of recovering your data, there are three different types of disaster recovery: cold, warm, and hot sites. Each describes the people and infrastructure required to get a backup site up and running as well as the time it takes to fully recover. Let\u2019s use the analogy of driving a car. A cold site is as if you had a\u00a0spare, bare-bones car parked in the garage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[98,79,219,71,220,221],"other_category":[],"class_list":["post-3047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disaster-recovery","tag-backup","tag-business-continuity","tag-cold-dr","tag-disaster-recovery","tag-hot-dr","tag-warm-dr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCloud Disaster Recovery | Hot & Cold Site | DRAAS | Otava<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn the difference between hot- and cold-site cloud disaster recovery at Otava\u2019s blog! We love to share our expertise!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is the difference between a cold, warm and hot disaster recovery site?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn the difference between hot- and cold-site cloud disaster recovery at Otava\u2019s blog! We love to share our expertise!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OTAVA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-28T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Irma Brillantes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Irma Brillantes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Irma Brillantes\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263\"},\"headline\":\"What is the difference between a cold, warm and hot disaster recovery site?\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-28T00:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/\"},\"wordCount\":747,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png\",\"keywords\":[\"backup\",\"business continuity\",\"cold DR\",\"disaster recovery\",\"hot DR\",\"warm DR\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Disaster Recovery\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/\",\"name\":\"Cloud Disaster Recovery | Hot & Cold Site | DRAAS | Otava\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-28T00:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Learn the difference between hot- and cold-site cloud disaster recovery at Otava\u2019s blog! We love to share our expertise!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What is the difference between a cold, warm and hot disaster recovery site?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/\",\"name\":\"OTAVA\u00ae\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"OTAVA\u00ae\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/otava-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/otava-logo.svg\",\"caption\":\"OTAVA\u00ae\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263\",\"name\":\"Irma Brillantes\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Irma Brillantes\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/author\/ibrillantesotava-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cloud Disaster Recovery | Hot & Cold Site | DRAAS | Otava","description":"Learn the difference between hot- and cold-site cloud disaster recovery at Otava\u2019s blog! We love to share our expertise!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What is the difference between a cold, warm and hot disaster recovery site?","og_description":"Learn the difference between hot- and cold-site cloud disaster recovery at Otava\u2019s blog! We love to share our expertise!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/","og_site_name":"OTAVA","article_published_time":"2016-01-28T00:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Irma Brillantes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Irma Brillantes","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/"},"author":{"name":"Irma Brillantes","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263"},"headline":"What is the difference between a cold, warm and hot disaster recovery site?","datePublished":"2016-01-28T00:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/"},"wordCount":747,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png","keywords":["backup","business continuity","cold DR","disaster recovery","hot DR","warm DR"],"articleSection":["Disaster Recovery"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/","url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/","name":"Cloud Disaster Recovery | Hot & Cold Site | DRAAS | Otava","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png","datePublished":"2016-01-28T00:00:00+00:00","description":"Learn the difference between hot- and cold-site cloud disaster recovery at Otava\u2019s blog! We love to share our expertise!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/otava.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/dr-white-paper-graphic.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cold-warm-and-hot-disaster-recovery-site\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What is the difference between a cold, warm and hot disaster recovery site?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/","name":"OTAVA\u00ae","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#organization","name":"OTAVA\u00ae","url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/otava-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/otava-logo.svg","caption":"OTAVA\u00ae"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35774075f8f4fcdd4eae80cb72034263","name":"Irma Brillantes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d5251bebc1699793a698d1a6158603cb3cdc50a095a12357e42d415b3e5546c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Irma Brillantes"},"url":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/author\/ibrillantesotava-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3047"},{"taxonomy":"other_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/other_category?post=3047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}