Episode 24 — Availability: Capacity, DR, RTO/RPO, Game-Days
Availability is one of the Trust Services Criteria most closely tied to operational resilience. It ensures that systems meet uptime commitments and can recover from disruptions within defined tolerances. The exam highlights concepts like capacity management, Disaster Recovery (DR) planning, and recovery objectives—RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective). Capacity planning prevents overloads before they occur, while DR ensures systems can be restored efficiently. Regular testing, or “game-days,” validates readiness under realistic scenarios and proves the plan’s effectiveness to auditors.
Operationally, availability controls include redundancy, failover mechanisms, and real-time monitoring. Evidence such as DR test reports, capacity trend metrics, and infrastructure diagrams demonstrates preparedness. Candidates should understand that availability is not just a technical metric but a contractual obligation linked to SLAs. Resilient organizations use post-test reviews to refine response playbooks and automate failover. On the exam and in real-world audits, demonstrating availability maturity means showing that resilience is both designed and practiced continuously. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.
