Which of the following data replication methods provides the shortest RPO?

Asynchronous replication writes data to the primary first and replicates to the secondary after a lag, creating a potential data loss window and a longer RPO than synchronous.

Full backup is a periodic method where RPO equals the time elapsed since the last backup completed, typically resulting in hours or days of potential data loss.

In synchronous replication, every write operation is committed to the replica at the same time as the primary storage, meaning the replica is always current and no data loss occurs if the primary fails - resulting in an RPO of near zero. Confirmation is only returned to the application after both the primary and replica acknowledge the write, ensuring there is never a gap between the two data sets. This makes synchronous replication the standard choice for workloads that require minimal or zero data loss.

Incremental backup captures only changes since the last backup and runs on a schedule, so RPO is tied to the backup interval rather than being near-zero.