Backup Facility

A backup facility is used like a backup generator when power is lost; it is something to turn to when the primary source is no longer available or accessible. A backup facility is also known as an alternate facility, alternate workspace/place, or emergency operations center (EOC). It is a location that a corporation turns to when access to its primary site fails to provide critical systems and services and is no longer accessible or available. It is activated only when a major crisis or disaster prevents the business from continuing normal operations. A backup site is key to a crisis management team (CMT) if it intends to restore and recover systems and services. The backup facility can be used by technology teams or end users, or as a space for the CMT, as a command center. It can also be any combination of these.

It is used to reestablish core or critical systems and services so that the impact to clients, customers, vendors, and suppliers is minimized and allows the corporation to get back to operations faster than if no alternate (backup) site were available. For crisis management teams, a backup facility provides the ability for other team members to perform their restoration and recovery efforts in the absence of the primary facility. If the primary site becomes unavailable, then there is another facility where workers can go: a contingency site.

There are three kinds of backup sites that can be utilized by a team: a cold site, a warm site, and a hot site.

Cold site: Simply put, this is an empty shell; it cannot be used for anything until resources are acquired and set up (both information technology (IT) and end user items). There is no data here, no IT, no resources of any sort. It is an empty space where organizations can go and begin to populate and set it up for operations when the need arises. To use an analogy, a cold site is like an empty glass compared to a full glass of water.

Warm site: This site may have some physical equipment available, with some wiring in place. It could be limited in space for end user use, but there is a wait required while additional equipment is loaded and configured before it can be utilized. One of the main components that differentiate a warm site from a hot site is that data are not available at a warm site. The warm site must wait for data to be restored and, possibly, user workstations to be connected to a network before any activities can commence. A warm site is like a half-full glass of water compared to a full glass.

Hot site: A hot site is identical to a primary site; it is ready to continue operations almost immediately and often is set up to “fail over” without [Page 28]any human intervention. It contains equipment that has a duplicate set of data—copied at very regular intervals—and systems (i.e., networks, servers, etc.) preconfigured to allow operations to continue. This site can house everything from technology systems to end user desktops and desks. A hot site is like a full glass of water beside another full glass of water.

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