What is a primary reason to have a remote cold site available for disasters in the primary datacenter?

Having a remote cold site available for disaster recovery is particularly important because it acts as a backup location that can be set up when a crisis occurs, ensuring that organizations have a plan in place to maintain business continuity. A cold site is typically equipped with basic infrastructure, like power and cooling, but does not contain pre-installed hardware or data. Instead, it provides the necessary space to restore and reinstall systems following a disaster.

Choosing a remote cold site allows an organization to prepare for unforeseen events by enabling resource mobilization and recovery processes that can be initiated as soon as the disaster occurs. This option ensures that while immediate restoration may not happen, there’s a foundation to begin recovery efforts, which can involve procuring the necessary hardware and restoring data from backups, allowing for recovery over time.

Therefore, the primary reason for having a remote cold site is that it serves as a strategic fallback plan, providing a basic framework that can be transformed into a functioning environment in the long run, rather than offering instant recovery solutions like mirrored hardware or ready-to-use data.