Disaster Recovery on AWS: RTO/RPO Without the Jargon

RTO/RPO explained (without the jargon)

RTO is how quickly you need to restore service. RPO is how much data you can afford to lose. Your DR design should match these targets—no more, no less.

Four common AWS DR patterns

• Backup & restore: lowest cost, highest RTO. Good for non-critical workloads.
• Pilot light: minimal core services always running; scale up on failover.
• Warm standby: a smaller version always running; faster recovery, higher cost.
• Multi-site active/active: highest availability and complexity; use only when justified.

How to choose quickly

Use this decision filter:

• If RTO is hours and RPO is minutes → warm standby or better.
• If RTO is a day and RPO is hours → backup/restore or pilot light.
• If downtime costs are massive → consider active/active (but be honest about complexity).

Don’t skip the testing

• Write a runbook that a different engineer could follow.
• Run a tabletop test first, then a controlled failover test.
• Capture screenshots/logs as evidence (especially for regulated work).

Next steps

We can help you define targets, pick a pattern, build runbooks, and run a DR test that produces evidence-ready artifacts.