RTO And RPO Planning Calculator

Work out rto and rpo planning instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About RTO And RPO Planning Calculator

RPO dictates the replication technology: anything under a minute requires synchronous or continuous replication, while fifteen minutes can be met with asynchronous log shipping. RTO dictates the standby posture. Pricing an RTO-length outage against the cost of a faster recovery architecture is how these targets should be set, rather than by aspiration.

Formula

RTO and RPO implications

data at risk = change rate x RPO; backup frequency = 1440 / RPO minutes; outage cost = hourly downtime cost x RTO

Worked example

With the default values below, RTO And RPO Planning Calculator returns Data lost at the RPO boundary of 5.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Target recovery time objectiveminimum 0.1 min: 60 min
Target recovery point objectiveminimum 0.1 min: 15 min
Data change rateminimum 0.001 GB/h: 20 GB/h
Cost of downtime per hourminimum 0: 40,000

Results

Data lost at the RPO boundary: 5.00 GB
Backup or snapshot frequency required: 96.0
Cost of an outage lasting the full RTO: $40,000.00
Replication approach implied: Asynchronous replication or log shipping

Step by step

1Values used
2RTO and RPO implications
3Data lost at the RPO boundary= 5.00 GB
4Backup or snapshot frequency required= 96.0
5Cost of an outage lasting the full RTO= 40,000.00
6Replication approach implied= Asynchronous replication or log shipping

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can RPO be zero?

Only with synchronous replication, which adds write latency proportional to the round trip between sites. That latency cost is why near-zero rather than zero is usually chosen.

Why do stated RTOs so often prove wrong?

Because they are aspirations rather than measurements. Only a full recovery rehearsal produces a defensible number, and the first rehearsal almost always exceeds the target.