To protect your business from data loss and downtime, it’s important to understand the difference between RTO and RPO in disaster recovery planning.
RTO focuses on how quickly systems must be restored, while RPO defines how much data loss is acceptable.
In this blog, you will learn the key differences, why both matter, and how setting the right targets helps keep your business safe during unexpected failures.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
A recovery point objective is measured in time. The figure describes and determines how much data a business is willing to lose in the event a disaster strikes their business.
This metric is a good one for an organization to determine how often to perform data backups, since in theory, the more data you need to maintain, the more frequently you will be backing up said data.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
A recovery time objective is also measured in time. It determines how much time you can go without recovering data and IT infrastructure before you lose continuity of your business.
After a disaster it is extremely important to get data and infrastructure back up as soon as possible, but some businesses can function better than others without access to its normal critical data and infrastructure.
How to Calculate RTO & RPO
Every business is unique and therefore each one decides how much downtime and data loss is acceptable and how considerable an impact. So, this calculation requires evaluating the criticality of the system, the needs of the business and the risks to establish acceptable metrics.
RTO Calculation
You have to identify the systems that are critical for your business and determine how long each one can be disconnected without serious interruptions, and what a realistic recovery time could be. Remember to consider dependencies and technical capabilities.
RPO Calculation
How much data do you think your company is allowed to lose without serious consequences? A lot? A little? None? Regardless, you should analyze the volume/throughput of transactions and data flow to define how often you should perform backups and, therefore, establish RPO targets.
RTO & RPO: Cost and Business Impact
The decisions around RTO and RPO directly impact recovery costs and business continuity. Generally speaking, lower RTOs and RPOs lead to increased costs, as they result in higher resource usage, more frequent backups, and enhanced infrastructure.
But lengthy recovery times or significant data losses can inflict even more severe financial destruction, legal liability and reputational damage. The cost of achieving strict targets and the impact of not achieving them is universal across all businesses.
“Understanding this relationship enables companies to make wise investment decisions, protect critical operations, and minimize unnecessary spending on recovery solutions.”
RPO vs RTO
Both are metrics widely used in enterprise disaster recovery and must be qualified very well to ensure they are effective. If you still have doubts about this, here are some differences between RPO and RTO so that you and your network administrator can set up a proper disaster recovery platform:
Calculation
If you think this is where it gets complicated, it probably is. Normally, you would think that RPO is easier to calculate because there are fewer moving parts, right? But no. The problem is that data restoration can only be done on working hardware. So if the disaster renders the server useless, then bye-bye data, at least until you get new hardware.
So when calculating an RPO, you have no choice but to do it by calculating inherent cost and demand for data. RTO, on the other hand, has to stay aligned with what is possible. If your business’ RTO is too close to its necessary RPO, you business may be in jeopardy if a major outage such as a server failure takes place.
Assessment and Cost
The costs associated with maintaining a strict RTO will likely be greater than those for RPO. This is largely because in the case of RTO, you are looking at the complete computing infrastructure, while RPO is just about data.
As far as the assessment of each, RTO incorporates a lot of your business’ more crucial needs, while, again, RPO is focused on data.
Automation
To meet your organizational RPO goals, all you need to do is perform data backups at the interval specified by your RPO assessment. Since data backup is one of the easiest parts of your business to automate, having a strong RPO strategy is simple.
Unfortunately, there is no practicable way to automate RTO, since many of the systems that need to be restored are likely physical hardware systems.
Best Practices for Setting RTO & RPO Targets
Establishing RTO and RPO targets needs proper planning, continuous evaluation and went with business objectives. Here are some best practices:
Prioritize Critical Systems
Identify the systems and processes that are most essential to your business, and for which you need the least amount of downtime and data loss in the event of a disaster (recovery time objective or RTO, and recovery point objective or RPO, respectively). Not all systems require the same targets.
Test and Update Regularly
Regularly testing your application ensures your disaster recovery plans meet the established RTO and RPO. Use: Update as business needs or technology change.
Consider Cloud and Automation
Use cloud backups as well as automation tools that will help deliver speed and accuracy in getting back to operational state and largely reduce human intervention — this can help substantially in achieving lower RTO and RPO.
