What is a key consideration when planning for low Recovery Time Objectives (RTO)?

When planning for low Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), one of the most critical factors to consider is that data must be pre-loaded into memory on the secondary site. This practice significantly reduces the time needed to restore services after a failure, as operational data is immediately accessible, allowing the system to resume function more quickly.

Pre-loading data into memory means that in the event of a failover to the secondary site, there is minimal lag in retrieving and processing the data. Consequently, this setup can drastically shorten the downtime experienced during an incident, which is the primary goal when targeting low RTO.

Other considerations, while relevant in a broader context, do not directly contribute to achieving low RTO in the same way. For instance, using less expensive hardware might compromise performance or reliability, which is counterproductive to quick recovery efforts. Asynchronous data replication, while it can be cost-effective, introduces latency that could extend RTO in certain failure scenarios, as it may not have the most up-to-date information when needed. Reducing backup frequencies could also expose the system to data loss and longer recovery times, going against the fundamental aim of minimizing the RTO.

Thus, the necessity of having pre-loaded data in memory is paramount to ensuring that recovery processes are