What is Maximum allowable downtime MAD?
Maximum allowable downtime MAD Definition: The measure of how long an organization can survive an interruption of critical functions. Also known as maximum tolerable downtime MTD.
Understanding Maximum allowable downtime MAD
The measure of how long an organization can survive an interruption of critical functions. Also known as maximum tolerable downtime MTD. MAD/MTD represents the longest period a business function can be unavailable before causing unacceptable harm to the organization. It helps determine recovery time objectives and appropriate continuity strategies. This metric is defined in standards like ISO 22301 NIST SP 800-34 and business continuity frameworks. Organizations determine MAD through business impact analysis involving key stakeholders in assessing the operational financial legal and reputational impacts of various outage durations. For example an online stock trading platform might determine through careful analysis that its trade execution system has a MAD of 15 minutes beyond that timeframe financial losses would become catastrophic and the business might not survive. This drives investments in highly resilient infrastructure with automated failover capabilities. Related terms Business continuity Disaster recovery Recovery time objective RTO Business impact analysis BIA Critical business functions Recovery strategy Service level agreement SLA.