A cold site as a disaster recovery option is characterized by the presence of:

A cold site in disaster recovery refers to a backup facility that has minimal resources readily available for immediate operational use. It typically does not include a fully configured IT infrastructure or immediate operational capacity. Instead, a cold site is often an empty space where an organization can relocate its operations if needed.

The characteristic of having no data backups from the original location is crucial to understanding cold sites; they rely on external resources that need to be brought in when required. In contrast, a warm site would have some infrastructure and limited readiness, while a hot site would be fully operational with real-time data backups, providing immediate operational capacity. Therefore, the defining characteristic of a cold site is indeed the absence of pre-existing data backups and systems that would allow for instant recovery post-disaster.