Key metrics for disaster recovery performance measurement

The following metrics are used for measuring the performance of a disaster recovery system:

• Recovery point objective (RPO)—The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time. It refers to a period of time in which services must be restored and recovered. RPO is used to measure the data loss caused by a disaster and to evaluate the data backup capability of a disaster recovery system. Typically RPO depends on how data is replicated. Synchronous replication can guarantee an RPO of zero, which indicates no data loss. In asynchronous replication, RPO is determined by the replication cycle.

Figure-1 RPO

 

• Recovery time objective (RTO)—The maximum tolerable length of time that a service system can be down after a failure or disaster. It defines how long it takes to restore services to running state. RTO is used to measure the data restoration capability of a disaster recovery system. It is determined by the service restoration procedure in disaster recovery. The more automated the restoration steps, the smaller the RTO.

Figure-2 RTO