What is a Recovery Time Objective?

In my last post we discussed Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and the importance of determining the appropriate RPO for each system in your inventory.? ??This post is the third in a boarder series of articles discussing business continuity and disaster recovery (often abbreviated at BC/DR or BCDR).? ?One of the critical elements of BC/DR is determining a Recovery Time Objective or RTO for your systems.? Basically, an RTO is the maximum tolerable amount of time your systems can be down prior to recovery. ?RTO is often determined via a process of negotiation between information technology and business staff.? This process of determining system criticality is a key part of an organization