1) Point In Time - streamed to S3. Guaranteed restore to a new cluster with less than 5 minutes data loss
2) Aurora Backtrack - On cluster buffer, up to 24 hours retention (no guarantee). "Instant" restore to the same cluster
So you should feel safe using the service (up to the 5 minute worst case scenario).
Obviously no one would ever want to use either backup method. However previously disaster recovery would involve spinning up a new cluster, deploying application changes with the new endpoint (or in a best case repointing a dns entry), waiting for the cache to warm up again. Now it becomes a 1 click fix through the UI with no application changes.
https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/files/p1041-verbitski.p...
And the docs
There are actually two backup/restore methods.
1) Point In Time - streamed to S3. Guaranteed restore to a new cluster with less than 5 minutes data loss
2) Aurora Backtrack - On cluster buffer, up to 24 hours retention (no guarantee). "Instant" restore to the same cluster
So you should feel safe using the service (up to the 5 minute worst case scenario).
Obviously no one would ever want to use either backup method. However previously disaster recovery would involve spinning up a new cluster, deploying application changes with the new endpoint (or in a best case repointing a dns entry), waiting for the cache to warm up again. Now it becomes a 1 click fix through the UI with no application changes.