Which of the following is an example of an RPO value for mission-critical PLC configurations?

• A. 15 minutes
• B. 2 hours
• C. 1 day
• D. 5 minutes

Answer: (A)

RPO is the maximum age of data that can be lost in a disruption, guiding how often you back up or mirror configuration data. For mission-critical PLC configurations, you want a short RPO because changes to control logic and safety settings must be preserved to keep operations safe and reliable. A cadence described as a quarter-hour represents a practical, short interval for backups or replication, which minimizes potential data loss while remaining feasible to implement in an industrial environment. Longer intervals would increase the amount of data that could be lost during an outage, and an even tighter cadence, while more protective, can impose greater overhead. Among the given options, the quarter-hour interval best illustrates the level of protection appropriate for these critical systems.