recovery time objective (RTO)

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is a key concept in business continuity planning. It represents the maximum amount of time an organization can tolerate being without a critical system or service after a disruption, such as a natural disaster or cyberattack. Essentially, RTO defines how quickly a business aims to restore its operations to ensure minimal impact on its services and customers. A shorter RTO indicates a greater urgency to recover quickly, while a longer RTO may imply that some downtime is acceptable.