RTO vs RPO

RTO is how long you can survive being down. RPO is how much data you can survive losing. Design your DR strategy around both — not just one.

Above two numbers every DR strategy is built on:

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) — how long can you afford to be down? It's the maximum acceptable time to get systems back up after a disaster. RPO (Recovery Point Objective) — how much data can you afford to lose? It's the maximum acceptable gap since your last good backup/replica. Simple way to remember: RTO = clock (time to recover) ⏱️ · RPO = calendar (data you lose) 📅

RPO - BACKUP schedule

Your RPO is essentially set by your backup schedule — it's the maximum gap you're willing to accept between backups, because that gap is exactly how much data you'd lose if disaster hit right before the next backup.

Simple rule:

RPO ≈ Backup Interval

Note: Block Volume Backup Policies let you set schedules (Bronze = weekly, Silver = daily, Gold = hourly) — that policy choice is your RPO decision. For near-zero RPO, you'd use Data Guard in Maximum Availability/Protection mode instead of scheduled backups.