In disaster recovery planning, what do RTO and RPO represent?

• A. RTO is recovery time objective; RPO is resource optimization
• B. RPO and RTO are same measure of uptime
• C. RTO is the maximum tolerable downtime; RPO is the maximum tolerable data loss
• D. RTO is revenue target; RPO is return on procurement

Answer: (C)

In disaster recovery planning, RTO and RPO are about how much disruption a business can tolerate and still survive. RTO is the maximum tolerable downtime—the longest period the system can be down before it causes unacceptable impact. RPO is the maximum tolerable data loss—the oldest data that can be lost in a disruption, usually tied to backup or replication frequency. Together, they shape how quickly you must recover and how up-to-date your data must be after an incident. For example, if the RPO is four hours, you should have data backups or replicas no older than four hours; if the RTO is two hours, you need a plan to restore operations within two hours. The correct description aligns with RTO as the maximum tolerable downtime and RPO as the maximum tolerable data loss. The other options mix up these concepts, such as treating RPO as resource optimization, claiming they measure uptime the same way, or linking RTO to revenue targets.