rpo and rto meaning
DR 101: Recovery Time Objective (RTO) In disaster recovery the term Recovery Time Objective (RTO) can simply be defined as: âThe time that it takes to recover data and applicationsâ. This means that in the event of a disaster, such as a system wide virus, a user error deleting production data, or a key hardware failure, the RTO is the time it will take to recover from this disaster and have the data and applications back online and running in your recovery site.
RTOs do not mandate recovery by a given date. The objective of the RTO may not be met, but the value of the exercise is in the anticipation and resulting pre-planning. Determining the recovery time objective should be done as part of the business impact analysis (BIA) along with the business continuity planner. Along with the RTO, the acceptable amount of data loss measured in time, called the Recovery Point Objective (RPO), is considered. An overall business continuity plan would then include the RTO, RPO and the BIA, along with alternate strategies and workaround procedures.