Systems Analyst: What is the difference between RTO and RPO?

RTO — Recovery Time Objective. RPO — Recovery Point Objective.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective):

• Time to restore service.
• How fast to recover.
• Measured in hours/minutes.
• Business requirement.

RPO (Recovery Point Objective):

• Data loss tolerance.
• How much data can be lost.
• Measured in time.
• Backup frequency.

Key differences:

• RTO — time to recover.
• RPO — data loss tolerance.
• RTO — speed.
• RPO — data.