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 whats the difference between the two? Let’s take a look.

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 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”.