An inventory of business systems and processes and their agreed Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) form a crucial foundation for business continuity, disaster recovery planning, data storage, and backup requirements. Each playing a vital role in how businesses prepare for and recover from disruptions. These objectives help define the recovery strategy to ensure critical business functions resume efficiently and effectively after an incident.
- RTO – the maximum acceptable downtime for a business process following a disruption and determines the priority to ensure critical operations resume swiftly.
- RPO – determines the maximum age of files or data records a business can accept to resume operations without significant losses and determines the frequency of data backups
These objectives are interrelated components of a comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery strategy, allowing businesses to:
- Invest resources based on critical business needs.
- Better prepare for disruptions.
- Minimize downtime and data loss.
- Cost-effectively manage recovery.
- Define the operational capacity requirements during the recovery phase.