Backup Storage & Recovery Calculator

Storage = projected data size (after a year of growth) plus the daily changes accumulated across your retention window, multiplied by the number of copies you keep. Deduplication and compression usually bring this down.

Initial backup time is your current data size divided by usable upload bandwidth. This is the one that surprises people: seeding a large dataset over a typical connection can take days.

Restore time uses your download bandwidth. If it exceeds your RTO target, your recovery plan needs local restores, seeded media, or more bandwidth.

How much backup storage do I need?

A rough estimate is your projected data size plus the accumulated daily changes across your retention window, multiplied by the number of copies you keep. This calculator does that math for you. Deduplication and compression usually reduce the real figure.

What are RPO and RTO?

RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is how much data you can afford to lose, measured in time: it sets how often you must back up. RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is how quickly you must be back online, which depends heavily on your restore bandwidth.

What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?

Keep at least 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of media, with 1 copy offsite. It protects against hardware failure, accidental deletion, ransomware, and site-level disasters.