Why Companies Need to Consider Recovery Time and Recovery Point Objectives When Choosing a Backup Service
Companies experience a lot of data loss due to various disasters, such as failed data security, ransomware and malware attack, and others. When such a disaster occurs, the next step is to recover the data lost so operations can continue as soon as possible.
Though many companies have backup plans set up, living with disaster recovery plans that don’t meet up to a needed recovery point objective (RPO) or recovery time objective (RTO) is one of the easiest ways for companies to lose their reputation. During a disaster, this can result in prolonged downtime.
According to research in 2020, the average rate of IT downtime is over $5,000/min. For some companies, a downtime of over an hour can mean a revenue loss of hundreds or thousands (if not millions).
While disasters, such as ransomware attacks or outages, can strike at any time, how a company handles recovery determines the ultimate cost of downtime. As a result, companies are advised to get a backup service plan for their data protection but in recent times, having a backup service plan isn’t enough. It should be a top priority to have a solid disaster recovery plan.
When choosing a backup service, companies are also advised to consider having recovery point and recovery time objectives. These two objectives, in combination with the backup service, ensure quick recovery in the occurrence of a disaster.
This article discusses RTO and RPO and why companies need to consider these two objectives when choosing a backup service.
Understanding Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
According to the Business wire, 74% of companies have experienced data loss within the last five years, while 52% of companies could not recover all their data after a data loss.
In today’s computer-networked world, data security and protection are essential for businesses. It’s risky to go with anything less than an entirely foolproof disaster recovery and business continuity plan that includes numerous levels of data backup.
Many businesses still don’t understand the essential significance of RTO and RPO. These two IT processes are critical parameters in disaster recovery, data backup, and business continuity planning.
While the two objectives may appear to be similar, they are distinct and unique metrics used in disaster recovery planning.
RPO & RTO – What are they?
RPO and RTO are two concepts that are similar yet serve different purposes: guaranteeing business continuity and restoring data after a system outage.
Recovery Time Objective
After an outage, the recovery time objective (RTO) is the amount of time it should take to restore all applications, data, and systems. Specifically, it determines how long the system will be unavailable from the time of the initial outage until full data is restored without creating major commercial damage. The recovery time objective is frequently calculated from when an outage occurs rather than from when the IT team begins working.
Recovery Point Objective
The point in time before the outage is the recovery point objective. It specifies the point in time when a company will be able to recover its data following a disaster. It also refers to the loss tolerance of the firm. This is the maximum amount of information that can be lost before causing major damage to the company’s productivity, reputation, and income. The recovery point objective is expressed as a time interval between the loss time frame and the most recent backup.
Why Companies Need to Consider RTO and RPO
Here’s why these recovery plans are so critical to a business.
- Backup frequency
When building a backup and disaster recovery strategy, one of the most critical criteria to consider is the RPO. RPO defines the backup frequency for businesses, which is essential because the time between backups effectively equals the quantity of information that could get missing in the occurrence of a data disaster.
- Saves costs
Every backup service requires storage capacity. The more frequently a company’s data is backed up, the more storage space is needed. Backups consume network capacity, potentially slowing down a company’s network. As a result, the recovery point objective helps in cost-benefit analysis.
- Downtime threshold
The recovery time objective determines the allowable duration between data loss and recovery, i.e. the downtime of the company. While any downtime is inconvenient, the goal of recovery time is also based on a cost-benefit analysis. It answers the following questions. What is the cost to the firm if it takes an hour to go back online? What about weeks or days?
- Fast restoration
The backup and recovery solution that a company chooses will have a significant impact on its RTO. Not all backup solutions are capable of quick recovery. Rather than just backing up files, every company wants to capture entire image backups of their systems. RTO enables systems to be restored more quickly.
- Dictate How Often Data Should Be Backed Up
The recovery point objective is the point at which a company can afford data loss. For example, in the occurrence of a disaster or outage, the company wants to be able to recover all data that was created on the previous day. In that case, they would have a 24-hour recovery point objective.
In the worst-case scenario, this means that they would lose one workday’s worth of data generated or captured by the company.
Setting a recovery point objective helps dictate how often a company should back up all devices and cloud data.
Get Help with a Reliable Backup and Disaster Recovery System
Setting up RTO and RPO will reduce the negative effects of downtime and help you better manage a disaster if one occurs. Skyline is a dependable IT management company that helps businesses improve and secure their data and processes, prevent data loss, and minimize customer downtime.
To get more information, you can “Book a Call“.
