A staging area is only an unused piece of land.
A staging area , or landing zone , is an intermediate storage area used for data processing during the extract , transform and load ( ETL ) process . A staging area ( otherwise staging point , staging base or staging post ) is a location where organisms , people , vehicles , equipment or material are assembled before use . In military usage , a staging area is a place where troops or equipment in transit are assembled or processed . Unlike normal bases , the facilities of a staging area are temporary , mainly because for a certain time it will hold much more troops and materiel than would be reasonable in peacetime . Militaries use staging areas to deploy military units , aircraft and warships and materiel ahead of an attack or invasion .