Disaster Recovery Colocation in Arizona: DR Planning Guide

Why Arizona for Disaster Recovery?

Arizona is one of the best states for disaster recovery colocation due to its minimal natural disaster risk. No hurricanes, rare flooding, negligible earthquake risk, and zero tornado alley exposure.

Geographic Diversity Strategy

Effective DR requires geographic separation. Arizona offers two distinct markets:

• Phoenix metro (primary) - 13+ providers, massive capacity, excellent connectivity
• Tucson (DR) - 110 miles from Phoenix, separate utility grids, lower cost

The 110-mile separation provides meaningful geographic diversity while keeping latency low enough for synchronous replication (< 5ms).

Understanding RPO and RTO

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

• RPO = 0 - Synchronous replication (possible Phoenix to Tucson)
• RPO = 15 min - Asynchronous replication every 15 minutes
• RPO = 24 hours - Daily backup replication

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

• RTO < 1 hour - Hot standby (servers running, ready to take over)
• RTO < 4 hours - Warm standby (servers provisioned, data synced)
• RTO < 24 hours - Cold standby (restore from backup)

Best DR-Ready Facilities

• Login Business (Tucson) - Ideal DR site, affordable, from $150/mo
• Involta (Tucson) - Managed DR services, HIPAA compliant, from $200/mo
• PhoenixNAP (Phoenix) - DRaaS options, from $99/mo
• H5 Data Centers (Chandler) - 100% uptime record, from $500/mo

DR Colocation Cost Planning

• Hot standby: 80-100% of primary site cost
• Warm standby: 40-60% of primary site cost
• Cold standby: 15-30% of primary site cost

Many businesses use Tucson for cold/warm DR at 30-50% lower cost than their Phoenix primary deployment.