Which type of site is characterized as an alternate location with no data or equipment available?

A cold site is characterized as an alternate location that has no data or equipment available. This means that if a disaster occurs at the primary site, a cold site can be used, but its lack of immediate resources means that significant time and effort will be required to set up operations there. Typically, a cold site will have basic infrastructure, such as power, cooling, and physical space, but organizations will need to procure and install hardware and restore data from backups before they can resume operations. This makes cold sites the most cost-effective option for disaster recovery, albeit with longer recovery timeframes compared to hot or warm sites, which have varying levels of pre-configured equipment and data availability.

In contrast, a hot site is fully equipped and has up-to-date data, allowing for immediate recovery, while a warm site includes some resources and might have backups ready but requires some configuration for operations to start. A backup site generally refers to any alternate site planned for recovery but doesn't specifically denote the level of preparedness as a cold site would.