Having a disaster recovery site for your business data can prove to be critical to the success or failure of the organization after any kind of disaster occurs. Anything from theft to fire to a natural disaster can occur in any business, causing data to be lost and companies to be at a standstill if they don't backup their files. Most businesses keep some kind of data backup on-site in case they have a crash or a loss of files, but there are far too few businesses that think about the repercussions of not having offsite storage in the event of a catastrophic loss.

Choosing the right disaster recovery site depends on the needs of your company as well as the capabilities of the data centers that are available. For starters, the data center should never be too close to your actual business. In the event of some type of storm or natural disaster, the proximity of the data center could cause it to see damage as well. Consider the location of the data backup within the facilities, as well. You don't want your data stored in an area near doors or windows, or in damp spaces.

In order to figure out how much data space you need at a disaster recovery site, you will have to look at your company and see what it demands for space and storage capabilities. You should figure out how much data you need to backup, how much downtime you can afford and how much that will cost the business. You can easily spend a little extra money and outsource your recovery needs to a data center, but you should ensure that this expense is lower than the money that you would lose during recovery operations on-site. For example, if you expect to lose two weeks of operations and up to $500,000 because of downtime after a disaster, getting data center services is practically a given. However, if you're only going to lose a day or two and a couple thousand dollars, it might not be worth the investment.

Of course, it doesn't matter what size your business is or what type of loss you could experience. Just the sheer fact of dealing with the hassle of data recovery is enough to warrant having a disaster recovery site that is away from your physical business to keep your files out of harm's way. Any business can consider this option, and those who want to keep their company secure and functional should definitely look into it.