For many years, companies had limited options for backing up their data. A common solution was to create tape backups of servers. This often had to be done manually, where one person was in charge of running the backups at the end of each business day. As IT operations grew in importance, running well beyond the 9 to 5 window, companies needed more robust backup solutions to protect data in case of a service outage or a natural disaster.
Thanks to advances in technology, businesses can now use cloud platforms and virtualized servers to create replicas of their servers and backup data at regular intervals. Regardless of what system a company uses to back up its data, all organizations need to take two very important parameters into consideration. These are the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and the Recovery Time Objective (RTO). With both objectives are specific to a business’s specific needs, all organizations need to make sure they define these objectives to have a successful data backup and protection system in place.
Recovery Point Objective
The Recovery Point Objective relates to your company’s tolerance for data loss. It is related to the time between data backups and the amount of potential data loss that could occur between backups. To establish an RPO, a company needs to define how much data they can afford to lose to continue operating successfully.
For example, say a company has a regular data backup at 11:30 pm. So at the end of each day at 11:30, the system backs up all of the data on the servers, including the new data that was created within the 24 hours since the previous day’s backup. Then say that a server crashes at 3:00 pm in the afternoon. This would mean that there is the potential that all data created between 11:30 pm the previous day and 3:00 pm when the server crashed is lost.
Some businesses may be able to operate with a major gap of data missing. Others, such as companies specializing in ecommerce or financial processes may need backups down to the minute. It all depends on the type of business and its individualized goals. However, in order to have a successful data backup plan in place – the RPO needs to be defined to ensure that in case of data loss, the company has enough to continue working until the systems can be restored.
Recovery Time Objective
Where RPO is focused solely on data and how resilient the business is in terms of data loss, the Recovery Time Objective or RTO is large scale and encompasses the entire business and its IT systems. RTO is the target time your business sets for the recovery of both IT systems and business processes in the event of a system disruption. The RTO is a calculation of how quickly a company needs to recover. Defining the RTO helps develop business continuity systems specific to a company’s unique needs and goals.
Say an organization has a high RTO such as 3 hours. This means that the businesses can operate successfully without its systems for only 3 hours. Backup systems and fail-safes must be put into place to recover the system as quickly as possible. However if a company has a low RTO such as a week (meaning they can operate business as usual for a full week until the system is restored), then less planning and system resourcing would be required.
Looking for assistance in calculating your business’s RPO and RTO? Roan Solutions can help!
