RTO (Recovery Time Objective) refers to the desired time frame for restoring business operations after a disruption, while RPO (Recovery Point Objective) defines the acceptable amount of data loss during recovery. RTO focuses on downtime, aiming to minimize it, while RPO determines the point in time to which data must be recovered. Both RTO and RPO play crucial roles in business continuity and disaster recovery planning, ensuring timely restoration and minimizing data loss.