What are RPO and RTO and how do I set them for our business?
RPO = how much data may you lose (hours, days). RTO = how long may you be down (hours, days). Both needed, both not free.
Try this first
- 1Ask per system: 'if this is down for two days, what does it cost us?'. For your admin maybe acceptable, for production or webshop not.
- 2RPO determines how often you back up. OK to lose a day's work? Daily backup is fine. Max one hour? Frequent snapshots or replication required.
- 3RTO determines where the backup lives and how you deploy. 24h RTO is fine from cloud restore. 4h RTO needs warm spare or hot replication.
- 4Write it per system in a table. This document is a negotiation point with management and input for your investment. Make it concrete.
When to bring us in
An RPO/RTO exercise is not just technical; management must join for the business side. We facilitate a two-hour session in which we fill the table together. Afterwards you have a foundation for all backup choices.
See also
- We have backups but we do not know if they workA backup that cannot be restored is not a backup. Testing matters as much as taking the backup.
- Suspected ransomware: what to do RIGHT NOWThe first 30 minutes are critical. One wrong move spreads the damage. Read before acting.
- Someone accidentally deleted an important folderUsually fine to recover. The trick: do not save anything new on that drive until you know how.
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