For an IT shop building a disaster recovery plan (DRP), one issue invariably arises: how far from the primary site should IT place the recovery site? While there is no hard-and-fast rule regarding appropriate distance, IT managers can apply some simple techniques to answer this important question.
Why Going the Distance Isn't a Straight Line
Despite the fact that some enterprises will need a fully redundant recovery site (complete with servers, PCs, internet connection, power supply, etc.), there are currently no standards on how far the hot site or cold site should be from the primary data center/server room location. While some legislation calls specifically for disaster recovery (e.g. HIPAA), even compliance guidelines offer no insight to this matter.