Cloud Computing
Recovery Time Objective
Definition
The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is a metric that defines the maximum acceptable length of time that a computer, system, network, or application can be down after a failure or disaster occurs.
Why It Matters
RTO is a key business metric that drives the disaster recovery strategy. A lower RTO (e.g., a few minutes) requires a more sophisticated and expensive DR solution than a higher RTO (e.g., 24 hours).
Contextual Example
For a mission-critical e-commerce website, the business might set an RTO of 15 minutes. This means the DR plan must be able to restore the entire service in a different region within 15 minutes of a disaster.
Common Misunderstandings
- RTO answers the question: "How quickly must we be back up and running?".
- It is related to, but different from, RPO (Recovery Point Objective).