RTO vs RPO

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) are important elements which guide major decisions when designing the architecture for a system but what’s the difference between the two? Let’s take a look.

RTO

RTO stands for Recovery Time Objective. If something goes wrong with the system, at which point, in the future, do we need to be back up and running again? E.g. “< 1 hour”.

RPO

RPO stands for Recovery Point Objective. If something goes wrong with the system, at which point, back in time, should we restore the system to? E.g. “previous day”.