RPO (Recovery point objective)

RPO (Recovery point objective, “recovery point objective”) – the maximum period for which data can be lost. The time to recover files from backup storage should not exceed the RPO. If, for example, RPO is 90 minutes, the data accumulated for the last hour and a half will be lost. Accordingly, a snapshot should be performed at least once every 90 minutes. Not only files on disks, but also application settings, server OS settings, and the state of processes in RAM can be backed up.

The choice of minimum backup frequency determines the choice of technologiesdisaster recovery: physical or cloud platform, type of storage, replication algorithm.

RPO is set taking into account how much data a user (client) can lose in case of an incident. This is determined by calculating the break-even point, when the cost of data loss equals the cost of making it available. Recovery costs should ideally not be excessive or insufficient.