RPO, RTO, BC strategies, testing and exercising

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is defined based on how fast you want to resume your operations after a disruption, while RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is defined based on how much data you can afford to lose due to a disruption.

For example, if an application has an RTO of 1 day and an RPO of 4 hours, it means that this application can be recovered (resume normal operation) in one day, but the information from the last 4 hours before the interruption occurred will be lost.

Business Continuity strategies refer to high-level actions to be developed to achieve defined continuity objectives.

For example, to ensure the objective of recovering operations in a defined timeframe, the strategy adopted may be the use of an alternative site. Another example is a backup strategy (which could be incremental, differential, etc.).

Testing and exercising are activities performed to find what doesn’t work in your business continuity in a controlled situation. In other words, when you lack real incidents, you create simulated ones to be able to improve your plans.

These articles will provide you a further explanation about these concepts:

• What is the difference between Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)? https://advisera.com/27001academy/knowledgebase/what-is-the-difference-between-recovery-time-objective-rto-and-recovery-point-objective-rpo/
• Explanation of the most common business continuity terms https://advisera.com/27001academy/blog/2021/01/18/explanation-of-most-common-business-continuity-terms/
• Developing the business continuity strategy according to ISO 22301 [free webinar on demand] https://advisera.com/27001academy/webinar/developing-the-business-continuity-strategy-according-to-iso-22301-free-webinar-on-demand/
• Can business continuity strategy save your money? https://advisera.com/27001academy/blog/2010/03/15/can-business-continuity-strategy-save-your-money/
• How to perform business continuity exercising and testing according to ISO 22301 https://advisera.com/27001academy/blog/2015/02/02/how-to-perform-business-continuity-exercising-and-testing-according-to-iso-22301/

This material will also help you regarding business continuity:

• Book Becoming Resilient: The Definitive Guide to ISO 22301 Implementation https://advisera.com/27001academy/becoming-resilient-the-definitive-guide-to-iso-22301-implementation/