Disaster Recovery – prepared rather than taken by surprise

Disaster Recovery: weiterarbeiten

Disaster Recovery (DR) encompasses all the strategies and technologies that enable a business to quickly restore its IT operations following an outage – whether caused by ransomware, hardware failure, human error or site failure. The two key metrics are: RTO (how quickly can you be back online?) and RPO (what is the maximum amount of data that can be lost?). To this end, centron offers replication at 15-minute intervals, daily backups and geo-redundant sites – all from German data centres.

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The two key figures that matter

What do RTO and RPO stand for?

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is the maximum tolerable downtime – how long can it take for systems to be back up and running? RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is the maximum tolerable data loss – how old can the last recoverable point be? Both figures determine which disaster recovery (DR) technology you need: one backup per night means an RPO of up to 24 hours; replication every 15 minutes reduces it to a maximum of 15 minutes; real-time replication in a high-availability pool reduces downtime to seconds.

A comparison of DR levels
LevelRPO (data loss)RTO (downtime)centron module
Daily backupsup to 24 hoursHours (Restore)cBacks – daily, centrally managed backups
Fine-grained replication≤ 15 minutesSeconds (failover)cProtect – Replication every 15 minutes, immutable states
High availability~ 0 (real time)secondsHigh Availability Pool – real-time replication, 99.8 per cent uptime SLA
Geo-redundancyacross all sitesdepending on the conceptDistribution across several German sites
The timetable

What should a disaster recovery plan include?

A robust disaster recovery plan answers four questions: Which systems are business-critical (business impact analysis)? What are the RTO/RPO targets for each system? What technology is used to achieve them (backup, replication, high availability)? And who does what in the event of an emergency (runbooks, responsible parties, communication channels)? The final step is crucial, yet one that many overlook: regular disaster recovery drills – an untested plan is no plan at all.

RPO ≤ 15 minswith cProtect · Failover in seconds
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  • 1. Business impact analysis – identify critical systems and dependencies
  • 2. Define the RTO/RPO for each system – not every application needs a failover within seconds
  • 3. Assign a technique – Backups (cBacks), replication (cProtect), HA pool, geo-redundancy
  • 4. Define runbooks and assign responsible persons – Who decides who communicates?
  • 5. Practise regularly – Failover tests and recovery drills in the calendar
  • 6. Document evidence – for audits, insurers and customers
The right solutions

Disaster recovery with centron: the building blocks

All components are hosted in German data centres certified to ISO 27001 on the basis of IT-Grundschutz, with full BSI C5:2020 Type 1 certification – GDPR-compliant and with 24/7 expert support.

cProtect – Ransomware Protection

Replication every 15 minutes, immutable recovery points and failover in a matter of seconds: operations continue whilst the incident is being analysed. Find out more

cBacks – Backup solution

Daily, centrally managed backups for VMs and servers – the cornerstone of any disaster recovery strategy, which can be combined with S3 archiving. Find out more

High Availability Pool

ccloud³ VMs on a redundant infrastructure with real-time replication across multiple cloud nodes and a 99.8% uptime SLA – for applications that must never go down. Find out more

Geographically redundant sites

System infrastructures can be distributed across several locations throughout Germany – ensuring protection even in the event of a complete data centre failure. About the data centres

Disaster Recovery FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Disaster Recovery

What is the difference between backup and disaster recovery?

A backup is a copy of data – disaster recovery is the complete process of restoring operations following a failure. Backups are one component of this; others include replication, failover infrastructure, defined RTO/RPO targets, runbooks and well-rehearsed procedures. Those who rely solely on backups will know, in the event of a crisis, that the data exists – but they will not know how quickly the business can be up and running again.

What RPO and RTO are realistically achievable?

With daily backups (cBacks), the RPO is up to 24 hours, and recovery takes several hours depending on the volume of data. With cProtect, the RPO is reduced to a maximum of 15 minutes, with failover taking just seconds. The High Availability Pool replicates in real time (RPO close to zero) with a 99.8 per cent uptime SLA. The right choice depends on what an hour of downtime costs your business.

Does disaster recovery also protect against ransomware?

Yes – provided the restore points are stored in an immutable format. With cProtect, even a compromised system with administrator rights cannot encrypt or delete the replicated states. In the event of an attack, you can revert to the last clean state prior to the infection and continue working whilst the incident is being investigated forensically.

How often should a disaster recovery plan be tested?

At least once or twice a year as a full-scale exercise; critical failover mechanisms should ideally be tested quarterly. Testing should cover not only the technical aspects but also the procedures: the availability of those responsible, the up-to-date status of the runbooks, and the actual recovery time compared with the defined RTO.

How much does disaster recovery cost at centron?

Basic protection with cBacks backups can be combined cost-effectively with any ccloud³ VM (from €3.11 per month). cProtect is tailored to your system environment and recovery objectives and offered on an individual basis; the High Availability Pool starts from €6.66 per month. To provide you with a specific quote, the centron team will analyse your RTO/RPO requirements free of charge.

Why choose disaster recovery from German data centres?

Because legal clarity matters in the event of an emergency: All centron sites are located in Germany; the data is governed exclusively by German and European law (GDPR); and the infrastructure is certified to ISO 27001 on the basis of IT-Grundschutz with an unrestricted BSI C5:2020 Type 1 certificate. Find out more: Data sovereignty at centron.

Your DR concept – analysed free of charge

Our team will assess your RTO/RPO requirements and recommend the most suitable solution – with no obligation.

This offer is for business customers only.