Cold, Warm and Hot Standby Sites
When downtime really matters, businesses keep a second site ready to take over. How quickly that standby can step in depends on whether it is cold, warm or hot — a spectrum of readiness against cost.
This article explains the three options so you can pick the one that matches your tolerance for downtime.
The Three Levels
Each step up the ladder reduces recovery time but increases running cost.
- Cold: infrastructure exists but must be built up and loaded with data before use.
- Warm: a partly-ready system kept reasonably up to date.
- Hot: a fully live duplicate ready to take over almost instantly.
Choosing the Right One
A hot standby is overkill for a brochure site but essential for a payment platform. We match the level to the cost of downtime for your business.
| Standby | Recovery time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Cold | Hours to days | Low |
| Warm | Minutes to hours | Medium |
| Hot | Seconds to minutes | High |
If you need a hand with any of this, your Progressive Robot delivery team is ready to help. Raise a ticket from the Support area of your client portal or speak to your account manager and we will guide you through the next steps.