A regional bank picks a cold site solely because rent is cheapest, even though the building sits in the same floodplain as headquarters. What site-selection principle is violated?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Cheap rent in the same flood bowl as HQ is a discount on shared doom. Alternate sites exist to dodge the same regional punch that hits primary. Price matters—just not more than surviving the river.
Full Explanation
Geographic diversity is a core criterion for recovery site selection. Choosing a cold site solely because rent is cheapest, even though the building sits in the same floodplain as headquarters, violates the principle that recovery sites should avoid sharing the same regional catastrophe profile when feasible. Low cost that fails together with the primary site is not resilience for a regional bank or any civic institution with similar exposure.
Requiring cold sites always share the same ZIP code as headquarters for courier speed prioritizes convenience over catastrophe separation. Claiming rent cost alone guarantees geographic resilience if the lease is prepaid annually confuses finance terms with hazard diversity. Accepting floodplain overlap because cold sites have no equipment to damage ignores that the site must still be usable for people and eventual rebuild when the region floods.
Exam caveat: cheapest is not automatically best. Shared regional catastrophe profiles undermine alternate-site purpose.
Operational check: compare hazard profiles of primary and candidate sites (flood, quake, storm corridors); reject options that fail for the same regional event; document diversity rationale alongside cost in the site-selection memo.