Do You Have RTO & RPO Included in Your Disaster Recovery Strategy?
It only takes one unexpected disaster to plunge your business into the dark ages. A flood, supply chain attack or electrical outage could occur at any point, taking you offline and halting operations to a standstill. While it’s not always possible to prevent a disaster, you can put steps in place to ensure that you recover quickly and efficiently.
This is what’s known as disaster recovery planning and it’s crucial for businesses of all sizes today. After all, nowadays, every company is a technology company. Whether you sell pharmaceuticals, consumer products or food, you rely on data and IT to run your business.
If you lose this data, you’re in trouble. As research shows, 6 in 10 companies that lose a significant amount of data from a cyber attack close forever within six months. It’s vital not to underestimate the importance of securing data in the event of an outage.
Do I Need A Disaster Recovery Strategy?
Too often, we see small businesses burying their heads in the sand about disaster recovery. They either think that a disaster won’t happen to them or simply hope that they can recover without a thorough plan. Both of these mindsets are risky. 93% of companies without a disaster recovery plan close within one year.
A disaster recovery plan is more than just a necessity. It’s a business differentiator. With a solid plan in place, you’re more likely to:
- Avoid data loss during an IT outage
- Get back up and running quicker than your competitors
- Mitigate common security risks that lead to data theft
- Respond calmly to a disruption
- Spend less on recovering from a disaster due to prior planning
All in all, a disaster recovery plan is vital for all businesses to have. While creating a plan involves an upfront investment, the amount you spend is negligible compared to a devastating disaster that you haven’t prepared for.
If a lack of internal IT resources is holding you back from creating a disaster recovery plan, speak to us. Our friendly team has a wealth of experience in helping companies like yours begin their disaster recovery journey.
Two Critical Metrics in Disaster Recovery: RTO and RPO
As you start to learn more about disaster recovery, you’ll hear two acronyms come up repeatedly: recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO).
These terms are two crucial elements of any successful disaster recovery plan. Knowing your RPO and RTO will guide your strategy and help you to create an informed timeline for recovering from disruption.
What are RPO and RTO, and How are They Different?
While they’re only one letter apart from each other, RPO and RTO have completely different meanings. RPO focuses on the regularity of your company’s data backups. Chances are, your company has backup procedures for a wealth of data. RPO doesn’t need to focus on all this data – just on critical data.
RPO is used to measure the amount of time after which data loss would start to negatively impact your organization. Your backup frequency is the central point from which RPO is calculated. It is usually measured in hours and minutes.
On the other hand, RTO is less about backups and more about IT infrastructure. It’s concerned with the amount of time within which your systems need to be back up and running. After this time period is over, your business is likely to suffer long-term damage as a result of downtime.
Again, RTO is measured in hours and minutes. It’s hard to give a ballpark figure for RTOs as every company is so different.
Calculating RTOs and RPOs for Your Business
It can be tempting for organizations to come up with estimated RTOs and RPOs from a bit of Google research. We strongly advise against this. These figures are unlikely to be accurate – and accuracy is vital for a successful disaster recovery strategy.
Rather than spend ages researching these topics online, it would be best to work with a managed IT provider that has experience in RTO and RPO calculations. These experienced professionals will gather insights about your business, the sector you work in and the data you handle to create highly-specific RTO and RPO figures that you feel confident in.
From there, they can help you to create a wider disaster recovery plan – and even manage disaster recovery for you should a disruption take hold.
Remember To Review Your RTO and RPO Metrics Frequently
Once you’ve got your disaster recovery plan in place, including your RPO and RTO metrics, it’s vital to both test your plan regularly and review it bi-annually.
Testing your plan ensures that your team members understand their roles and responsibilities in the event of an outage while reviewing your plan makes sure that it is still fit for purpose and relevant.
We Can Take Care of Your Disaster Recovery Strategy!
With deep knowledge of RTO, RPO and disaster recovery, Unbound Digital can help your Johnson City, Tennessee business stay safe from downtime.
Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Call 423-467-7777 or reach us online.