RTO and RPO
termgovernance & riskops culture
Stands for: Recovery Time and Recovery Point Objectives
How long recovery may take, and how much recent data may be lost - the two numbers that turn continuity from an aspiration into a design.
They are useful because they cost money in opposite ways. A short recovery time buys standby capacity that sits idle; a short recovery point buys replication and the bandwidth to sustain it. Stating both forces the business to say what an hour of downtime and an hour of lost work are actually worth, which is the conversation continuity planning exists to have. The failure mode is declaring numbers nobody has tested, which produces a plan that is precise and untrue.
Also known as: RTO, RPO