What happens when a disaster strikes? If you’re prepared, your continuity plan will go into action. Data backup services are an important element of this plan. With the right solution, you can limit disruptions.
RPO and RTO
You’ll have to look at two key concepts when developing your recovery plan:
- RPO: This stands for recovery point objective. It refers to how often you backup your data. It also indicates how much data you would lose in a scenario that causes downtime.
- RTO: This is recovery time objective. This metric reflects how long it takes to get a system back online. So, the longer the RTO, the costlier the interruption becomes.
What are the levels of RPO and RTO?
You’ll have to assess your optimal RPO and RTO levels when developing a data recovery plan.
Businesses measure RPO in terms of minutes or hours. With daily backups, you could lose as much as 24 hours of usable data. RPO zero is the most demanding level, with no data loss in the event of a disaster.
You have the option of tiering your data too. RPO zero can be your goal for live transactions, but you can implement a one- or two-hour RPO for other critical data.
RTO levels can range from a few minutes for core applications to a few days. It’s possible to reduce your RTO by using the cloud. With a failover mechanism in place, a cloud-based server can automatically take over when a system goes down. The incident won’t affect users and all your key systems will remain accessible.
Which level suits your needs best?
Did you know that 93% of businesses that experienced a data center outage of more than 10 days filed for bankruptcy within the same year? This statistic reflects the need to adopt RPO and RTO metrics suited to your organization.
Your IT infrastructure is unique. When putting together your data recovery plan, you should determine individual RTO and RPO levels for each component. You can start by asking the following questions:
- Which systems handle live transactions?
- Which applications are business-critical?
- What does a minute or an hour of downtime cost you? How much business do you lose?
- How much data can you afford to lose? What is the cost of lost data? Is it possible to reenter lost data later?
- How do different applications being offline affect employees?
- Is downtime preventing customers from accessing services they’re paying for? What is the acceptable amount of downtime to maintain customer satisfaction?
- Are there any dependencies between the different components of your infrastructure?
- Which systems being offline leave you vulnerable to security threats?
Improve your disaster recovery plan with data backup services
Your RPO and RTO are crucial aspects of data recovery since they establish measurable benchmarks. These metrics can help you select the right solutions. Besides, they will help you keep track of your results so you can improve your plan.
SecureTech in San Antonio, TX can help you assess your current level of preparedness in the event of a disaster. We can recommend the best RTO and RPO levels for your needs. We’ll also recommend data backup solutions that work for your budget and recovery objectives. Contact us today to learn more about our data recovery san antonio services.