RTO & RPO Targets

definitions:
  RTO:
    full_name: "Recovery Time Objective"
    definition: "Maximum acceptable time from disaster declaration to service restoration"
    example: "If RTO is 4 hours, service must be restored within 4 hours"
    drives: "Failover architecture, backup frequency, automation level"

  RPO:
    full_name: "Recovery Point Objective"
    definition: "Maximum acceptable data loss measured in time"
    example: "If RPO is 1 hour, you can lose at most 1 hour of data"
    drives: "Backup frequency, replication strategy, data protection"

  relationship:
    description: "RTO and RPO together define your recovery capability"
    example:
      RTO: "4 hours"
      RPO: "1 hour"
      meaning: "Service must be restored within 4 hours, with at most 1 hour of data loss"

service_tiers:
  tier_1_critical:
    description: "Revenue-generating, customer-facing services"
    examples: ["Payment processing", "User authentication", "Core API"]
    RTO: "15 minutes"
    RPO: "0 seconds (zero data loss)"
    infrastructure: "Active-active, multi-region, synchronous replication"
    cost: "High"

  tier_2_important:
    description: "Business-critical but not immediate revenue impact"
    examples: ["Internal tools", "Analytics pipeline", "Email service"]
    RTO: "1 hour"
    RPO: "5 minutes"
    infrastructure: "Active-passive, cross-AZ, asynchronous replication"
    cost: "Medium"

  tier_3_standard:
    description: "Useful but not critical for business operations"
    examples: ["Documentation", "Internal wiki", "Development tools"]
    RTO: "4 hours"
    RPO: "1 hour"
    infrastructure: "Single region, regular backups"
    cost: "Low"

  tier_4_non_critical:
    description: "Nice to have, can be down for extended periods"
    examples: ["Sandbox environments", "Test data", "Archived data"]
    RTO: "24 hours"
    RPO: "24 hours"
    infrastructure: "Single region, daily backups"
    cost: "Minimal"

target_setting_process:
  step_1_identify:
    - "List all services and their business criticality"
    - "Identify revenue impact of downtime"
    - "Identify data loss impact"

  step_2_classify:
    - "Assign tier to each service"
    - "Map tier to RTO/RPO targets"

  step_3_validate:
    - "Can current architecture meet these targets?"
    - "What is the cost to meet these targets?"
    - "Are there technical constraints?"

  step_4_negotiate:
    - "Present cost/benefit analysis to stakeholders"
    - "Negotiate targets based on budget and risk"
    - "Document final targets with rationale"

  step_5_document:
    - "Create RTO/RPO register"
    - "Include in service documentation"
    - "Review quarterly"

signoff_process:
  stakeholders:
    - "VP Engineering: technical feasibility"
    - "VP Product: user impact assessment"
    - "CFO: cost and investment decisions"
    - "CTO: technical architecture alignment"

  documentation:
    - "Service tier classification"
    - "RTO/RPO targets per tier"
    - "Cost analysis per tier"
    - "Risk assessment"
    - "Implementation timeline"

  signoff_template: |
    ## RTO/RPO Target Signoff

    Service: [name]
    Tier: [1-4]
    RTO: [time]
    RPO: [time]

    Business justification:
    [Why this service needs these targets]

    Cost implications:
    [Infrastructure cost to achieve these targets]

    Risk if targets not met:
    [Business impact of not meeting targets]

    Approved by:
    - VP Engineering: [name, date]
    - VP Product: [name, date]
    - CFO: [name, date]

  review_frequency: "Quarterly"

cost_analysis:
  tier_1:
    RTO: "15 minutes"
    RPO: "0 seconds"
    infrastructure_cost: "$50,000/month"
    components:
      - "Active-active multi-region: $30,000"
      - "Synchronous replication: $10,000"
      - "Automated failover: $5,000"
      - "Monitoring and alerting: $5,000"

  tier_2:
    RTO: "1 hour"
    RPO: "5 minutes"
    infrastructure_cost: "$15,000/month"
    components:
      - "Active-passive cross-AZ: $10,000"
      - "Asynchronous replication: $3,000"
      - "Backup infrastructure: $2,000"

  tier_3:
    RTO: "4 hours"
    RPO: "1 hour"
    infrastructure_cost: "$5,000/month"
    components:
      - "Single region with backups: $3,000"
      - "Restore tooling: $2,000"

  tier_4:
    RTO: "24 hours"
    RPO: "24 hours"
    infrastructure_cost: "$1,000/month"
    components:
      - "Single region: $500"
      - "Daily backups: $500"

  total_monthly_cost: "$71,000"
  annual_cost: "$852,000"

compliance_metrics:
  - name: "RTO Compliance"
    formula: "incidents_within_rto / total_incidents"
    target: "100%"
    frequency: "Per incident"

  - name: "RPO Compliance"
    formula: "data_loss_within_rpo / total_incidents"
    target: "100%"
    frequency: "Per incident"

  - name: "Mean Time to Recovery"
    formula: "avg(actual_recovery_time)"
    target: "< tier RTO"
    frequency: "Monthly"

  - name: "Mean Data Loss"
    formula: "avg(actual_data_loss)"
    target: "< tier RPO"
    frequency: "Monthly"

  dashboard:
    panels:
      - title: "RTO/RPO Compliance by Service"
        type: "table"
        columns: ["Service", "Tier", "RTO", "Actual RTO", "RPO", "Actual RPO", "Compliant"]

      - title: "Mean Time to Recovery (Trend)"
        type: "timeseries"
        query: "avg(actual_recovery_time) by (service)"

      - title: "Recovery Incidents"
        type: "bar_chart"
        query: "count(recovery_events) by (service, result)"