Backup Strategy

Business Impact Analysis

Necessary functions are identified using a business impact analysis (BIA). The BIA lists the functions performed and prioritizes them in order of most important to least important. Along with the BIA are financials that state the various costs of all functions not working. Quantifying how much revenue will be lost or how much cost will be incurred while waiting for the data to be recovered helps determine how much to spend on the data recovery processes. Typically, the higher priority a function has, the more its absence will reduce revenue. Conversely, functions with a low priority typically do not garner much revenue or cost much to be without for extended periods of time. Of course, when this information is presented, it is up to the highest-level decision makers to conclude how much they are willing to spend on data recovery to mitigate the identified losses. With an approved spending threshold, the data recovery processes can be determined. At times, the data cannot be recovered within the approved spending threshold. If that happens, the decision makers must decide whether they want a longer recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) to avoid the cost of data recovery or to provide additional spending to accomplish proper data recovery. Care should be taken when a function is deemed unnecessary, as most businesses do not spend on unnecessary functions; they will expect that function to eventually be recovered.

Recovery Objectives

Recovery objectives include the recovery time objective (RTO) and the recovery point objective (RPO). The RTO is the length of time a function can operate without the data, and the RPO is how old the data should be when they are recovered. Another determination is the RTO for each function; usually, the more important the function, the shorter the RTO. Then the RPO is determined by understanding the maximum age of the data that must be recovered. Functions may not continue if they must start again with recovered data that are too old. The RPO also helps determine the backup and restoration processes that must be used. Typically, the shorter the RTO and the RPO, the more expensive data recovery will be. This is why the financials discovered in the BIA are important: to provide a cost-to-loss comparison to solidify the spending threshold. With the entire set of requirements and objectives from the BIA and the spending threshold, the backup strategy can be designed. Again, longer RTOs and RPOs allow less expensive backup strategies, while shorter RTOs and RPOs require more expensive backup strategies.

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