CompTIA Cloud+ (CV0-004)OperationsMedium
A cloud architect is designing a backup strategy for a mission-critical database that requires a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours. The database is hosted on a cloud provider's managed database service. Which backup and restore method would best meet these requirements?
- ADaily full backups to object storage
- BContinuous data protection (CDP) with replication to a secondary region
- CSnapshot-based backups every 6 hours
- DWeekly full backups with daily incremental backups to tape
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Continuous data protection (CDP) with replication to a secondary region
Continuous Data Protection (CDP) records every change, allowing recovery to any point in time, which easily meets a 15-minute RPO. Replication to a secondary region significantly reduces RTO by providing a warm or hot standby ready for failover.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Daily full backups would result in an RPO of up to 24 hours, failing the 15-minute requirement.
- C. Snapshots every 6 hours would result in an RPO of up to 6 hours, failing the 15-minute requirement.
- D. Tape backups are slow for recovery, failing a 4-hour RTO, and weekly/daily backups fail the RPO.
RPO and RTO
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) defines the maximum acceptable data loss, while Recovery Time Objective (RTO) defines the maximum acceptable downtime.
- RPO is measured in time (e.g., 1 hour, 1 day).
- RTO is measured in time (e.g., 2 hours, 12 hours).
- Lower RPO/RTO typically requires more complex and costly solutions.
Memory trick: RPO is 'Point' of data lost, RTO is 'Time' to get back online.