Off-site Backup
Also known as: Offsite backup
A copy of data stored in a separate geographic location to survive a local disaster.
An off-site backup is a copy of data stored in a physically separate location from the primary systems, so that a fire, flood, theft, or other local disaster cannot destroy both the original data and its backup.
Off-site backups, often kept in a geographically distant data center, are a core part of backup and disaster recovery and help satisfy HIPAA's requirement to protect the availability of ePHI. Backups containing PHI must themselves be encrypted. State law can limit where off-site copies sit: Texas SB 1188 requires health records to be physically kept in the United States. The Florida health data storage law allows the United States, its territories, or Canada.