What is Recovery time objective RTO?

Understanding Recovery time objective RTO

The target time set for recovering from any interruption. RTO defines the maximum acceptable time to restore a process or system after a disruption establishing how quickly recovery must occur to avoid unacceptable consequences. It essentially answers how long can we operate without this system and directly influences recovery strategy investments. RTO is defined in standards like ISO 22301 NIST SP 800-34 and business continuity frameworks. Organizations determine RTO through business impact analysis consulting stakeholders to define time-sensitivity of different functions and systems. For example an airline reservation system might have an RTO of 15 minutes requiring significant investment in highly available architecture with automated failover capabilities while a monthly reporting system might have an RTO of 72 hours allowing for more economical recovery approaches like restore-from-backup procedures. Related terms Business continuity Disaster recovery Business impact analysis High availability Failover Maximum tolerable downtime Recovery point objective Service level agreement.