When a file is deleted or a server breaks, the first question should not be “is there a backup?” but “to which point, in how much time, and losing what can we return?”
RPO and RTO in human language
RPO describes acceptable data loss; RTO describes the acceptable time for the system to work again. For an e-commerce site, losing the last 24 hours of orders is not the same operation as accepting a 15-minute loss.
Parts of a good plan
- A backup copy separate from production.
- A different access account or immutable storage.
- Encrypted transfer and storage.
- A restore procedure with a responsible person.
- Real tests at regular intervals.
An untested backup is an assumption
A backup file sitting on disk does not mean the application will open with it. The database, files, environment variables, DNS, certificates and external service connections must be able to return together.
Source / further readingWYN working approachThis article does not copy the original content of the source; it is WYN’s practical interpretation. For current headlines, check the publication date and the source page separately.