I come across these terms whenever going to solution architecture. Here’s a better look at what they mean.
Recovery Point Objective
- Maximum time of data loss a business can tolerate.
- Defines the frequency of backups.
- The lower the RPO, the higher the cost and complexity of data management.
- Example: ACME Corp requires an RPO of 1 hour, which means that they can withstand the data loss of a maximum of 1 hour.
Recovery Time Objective
- Maximum time it can take to recover from an outage.
- Can improve by proper monitoring, notification and documentation for recovery.
- Critical applications have very low RTO and are, hence, very complex.
- Different parts of the business can have different RPO and RTO.
- Example: ACME Corp requires an RTO of 15 minutes, which means that the system should recover within 15 minutes of impairment.