Recovery time objective (RTO)

How quickly a system must be running again after a disruption.

The RTO is the target time to restore a process or system. A short RTO needs a fast recovery option, such as a hot site; a long RTO can use a cheaper one. It comes out of the business impact analysis.

On the exam

If the question is about acceptable downtime, the answer is RTO. The lower the RTO, the higher the recovery cost.

Related terms

Recovery point objective (RPO)The most data, measured in time, the business can afford to lose.
Hot, warm and cold sitesAlternate processing sites, from ready-to-run to an empty room.
Business impact analysis (BIA)Working out which processes matter most and how fast they must recover.

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