What are the key metrics and KPIs to monitor and improve RTO performance?

While the RPO (Recovery Point Objective) metric defines the frequency of backup operations, the RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is a fundamental metric for defining and implementing the data protection architecture and systems. More investment is necessary to meet the business demands depending on the need for recovery speed and the number of applications that must simultaneously meet this recovery objective. The more aggressive the RTO, the more investment is required in the infrastructure or services supporting the data recovery environment. Therefore, the RTO is essential in determining the impact tolerated by the business in the event of application interruptions and the necessary investment in infrastructure and services.

The most recommended way to measure RTO and recovery point gap is through periodic tests before an incident occurs. This way, the organization will be sure that the RTO and RPO objectives will be achieved when necessary. There are systems capable of automatically performing recovery tests on a scheduled basis without stopping the production environment. Likewise, they can deliver reports stating the RTO achieved. The tests allow proactive corrections in the data protection environment. When an actual incident and recovery occurs, comparing the test results with the RTR (Recovery Time Reality) and RPR (Recovery Point Reality) is necessary. The team must adjust the organization's procedures, KPIs, and RTO and RPO objectives if necessary.

To improve Recovery Time Objective (RTO) performance, key metrics and KPIs include Backup Frequency and Data Throughput, which measure how quickly backups can be restored. Mean Time to Recover (MTTR) tracks the average time needed to restore operations after a failure. Monitoring Backup Success Rate ensures backups complete without errors, and System Resource Utilization ensures enough CPU, memory, and bandwidth are available during recovery. Recovery Test Results help assess readiness and refine processes for quicker restoration.

The performance of the RTO is directly related to the capacity of the data protection software, the computational resources available for the software, and the performance of the storage systems used. Correct dimensioning of these resources (sizing) is necessary, following the best practices and recommendations of the software and hardware suppliers. If the desired RTO is very aggressive, "all-flash" storage systems must be deployed, allowing high performance in random read operations. Furthermore, adequate network resources must be available to ensure high recovery performance.

It is recommended that the most critical applications for the business be selected. The RTO must be defined according to the costs of an outage. Furthermore, it is necessary to examine SLA commitments established in contracts with the organization's customers to fulfill them adequately. Analysis and use of market benchmarking is highly recommended. Furthermore, the possible need for investments in IT resources and the teams that must maintain and operate the data protection environment must be considered.

When we talk about data backup and restore, o RTO deve estar alinhado com as defini??es de RPO. Both must be compared and adjusted according to the RTR and RPR indices observed in the occurrence of an incident and recovery. Other underlying metrics must be controlled, such as the performance of computing resources, the availability of storage areas for backups, and network performance.