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RTO vs RPO vs MTD vs WRT: Business Continuity Metrics Explained
Security & Risk ManagementCISSPSecurity+
How long can your business be down, and how much data can it lose, before the harm becomes unacceptable? In this video, I'll walk through the four time limits that a business impact analysis sets for each critical function, i.e. recovery point objective, or RPO, recovery time objective, or RTO, work recovery time, or WRT, and maximum tolerable downtime, or MTD. Then one order-processing example shows how each value can fail.
What you will learn
- What business impact analysis (BIA) is, and why each critical function gets its own values
- How RPO looks back from a disaster, while RTO, WRT and MTD look forward
- RPO and backups, with a 15-minute transaction log example
- RTO, WRT and MTD, and the rule RTO + WRT ≤ MTD
- One order-processing example where RTO, RPO and WRT each fail
- Why shorter targets cost more, and how hot, warm and cold recovery sites compare
- Three tip ideas: RTO ≠ back to normal; IT ≠ sets MTD or RPO; MTD ≠ exact deadline