What is Recovery point objective RPO?
Recovery point objective RPO Definition: A measure of how much data the organization can lose before the organization is no longer viable.
Understanding Recovery point objective RPO
A measure of how much data the organization can lose before the organization is no longer viable. RPO defines the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time establishing how fresh recovered data must be to sustain business operations after a disruption. It essentially answers how much data can we afford to lose and directly influences backup frequency and replication strategies. RPO is defined in standards like ISO 22301 NIST SP 800-34 and business continuity frameworks. Organizations determine RPO through business impact analysis engaging stakeholders to assess the maximum tolerable data loss for each system or process. For example a stock trading platform might establish an RPO of near-zero seconds for transaction data implementing continuous replication to a standby system while setting a 24-hour RPO for historical analytics data that could be reconstituted from daily backups if needed. Related terms Business continuity Disaster recovery Business impact analysis Data backup Replication Maximum tolerable downtime Recovery time objective Critical business functions.