---
name: Registry-registry_bc_dr
title: Business continuity and disaster recovery for Container Registry
description: Find out about the business continuity and disaster recovery strategy for Container Registry, including your responsibilities and IBM's built-in redundancy measures.
last-updated: 2026-08-11
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/Registry?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Business continuity and disaster recovery for Container Registry
{: #bc-dr}

Find out about the business continuity and disaster recovery strategy for Container Registry, including your responsibilities and IBM's built-in redundancy measures.
{: shortdesc}

[Disaster recovery](#x2113280){: term} involves a set of policies, tools, and procedures for returning a system, an application, or an entire data center to full operation after a catastrophic interruption. It includes procedures for copying and storing an installed system's essential data in a secure location, and for recovering that data to restore normalcy of operation.

## Your responsibilities when you're using Container Registry
{: #bc-dr-responsibilities}

For more information about your responsibilities when you're using IBM Cloud Container Registry, see [Shared responsibilities for IBM Cloud Container Registry](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/Registry?topic=Registry-registry_responsibilities&format=markdown).

## Disaster recovery strategy
{: #bc-dr-strategy}

IBM Cloud has [business continuity](#x3026801){: term} plans in place to provide for the recovery of services within hours if a disaster occurs. You're responsible for your data backup and associated recovery of your content.

Container Registry provides mechanisms to protect your data and restore service functions. Business continuity plans are in place to achieve targeted [recovery point objective](#x3429911){: term} (RPO) and [recovery time objective](#x3167918){: term} (RTO) for the service. The following table outlines the targets for Container Registry.

| Disaster recovery objective | Target Value |
| --------------------------- | ------------ |
| Recovery point objective (RPO) | 48 hours |
| Recovery time objective (RTO) | 24 hours |
{: caption="RPO and RTO for Container Registry" caption-side="bottom"}
{: #table_registry_bc_dr_rpo_rto}

## Locations for service availability
{: #bc-dr-locations}

For more information about service availability within regions and data centers, see [Service and infrastructure availability by location](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/overview?topic=overview-services_region&format=markdown).

## FAQ about disaster recovery
{: #bc-dr_faq}

Review the following frequently asked questions about disaster recovery.

### Does the service replicate the data?
{: #bc-dr_replicate_data}

All customer data in IBM Cloud Container Registry is replicated and backed up. Backups include service and policy settings and image data, but not vulnerability results, which can be reconstructed. All data, including vulnerability results, is replicated within each region so that the loss of a single availability zone is tolerated transparently. Regular point-in-time backups are used by IBM to restore the content if the data is corrupted. More backups are created in other regions with compatible privacy policies that are used by IBM to restore the service in a disaster situation.

The following table shows the backup locations.

| Environment | Environment that was formerly known as | Active location | Backup location |
| ----------- | -------------------------------------- | --------------- | --------------- |
| `au-syd` | `ap-south` | `au-syd` | `jp-tok` |
| `br-sao` | Not applicable | `br-sao` | `us-south` |
| `ca-mon` | Not applicable | `ca-mon` | `ca-tor` |
| `ca-tor` | Not applicable | `ca-tor` | `us-east` (service and policy settings)  \n  \n `ca-mon` (images) |
| `eu-de` | `eu-central` | `eu-de` | `eu-gb` |
| `eu-es` | Not applicable | `eu-es` | `eu-de` |
| `eu-gb` | `uk-south` | `eu-gb` | `eu-de` |
| `global` | Not applicable | `us-east` | `us-south` |
| `in-che` | Not applicable | `in-che` | `jp-tok` |
| `in-mum` | Not applicable | `in-mum` | `in-che` |
| `jp-osa` | Not applicable | `jp-osa` | `jp-tok` |
| `jp-tok` | `ap-north` | `jp-tok` | `au-syd` |
| `us-south` | Not applicable | `us-south` | `us-east` |
{: caption="Backup locations" caption-side="bottom"}
{: #table_registry_bc_dr_backup_locations}

### What data is backed up or replicated?
{: #bc-dr_backup}

The image data, service settings, and policy settings are backed up by IBM.

### Are users required to replicate the data?
{: #bc-dr_client}

You're not expected to replicate your images. However, you can create a service instance in another IBM Cloud Container Registry region. You can also choose from a range of tools, including pushing to multiple locations from your development pipeline, and the use of replication tools, such as [`skopeo copy`](https://github.com/podman-container-tools/skopeo/blob/main/docs/skopeo-copy.1.md){: external}. IBM doesn't replicate service instances. For more information, see [High availability for Container Registry](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/Registry?topic=Registry-ha-dr&format=markdown).

### What happens if a disaster occurs?
{: #bc-dr_recovery}

IBM has targets for the recovery point objective (RPO) of 48 hours and the recovery time objective (RTO) of 24 hours. These targets help ensure that your data is protected and service functions are restored promptly if a disaster occurs. If a region is not available, IBM restores the region and the user data, subject to the RPO of 48 hours, therefore up to 48 hours of newly created or changed data might be lost.

If the region that you use is unavailable, you cannot automatically access your data in another region. If you want highly available, 24x7, data, you are responsible for creating a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. For example, a comprehensive disaster recovery plan might entail pushing your images to two separate IBM Cloud Container Registry regions, and being able to access your data from either region. For more information, see [High availability for Container Registry](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/Registry?topic=Registry-ha-dr&format=markdown).