Glossary
RPO and RTO
Also called Recovery point objective, Recovery time objective.
Definition
Recovery point objective (RPO) is the most data you can afford to lose, measured as time since the last good copy, and recovery time objective (RTO) is the longest you can afford a service to be down.
Why it matters when you’re buying
They turn “we need backups” into requirements you can design, budget and test against. Set them per system with the business, because tighter targets cost more.
How it relates to other terms
Backup design follows from RPO and RTO, and SLOs do the same job for everyday reliability rather than disaster recovery.
Where to go next
- Storage & Data Protection: news, companies and community questions
- How to evaluate Storage & Data Protection vendors: criteria, questions to ask and red flags
- Backup and recovery: the latest stories and threads on this topic
Written by Techarda editors · Updated . Think a definition is wrong or missing something? Email engage@techarda.com. All terms.