Recovery point objective (RPO)
- Term
- Recovery point objective (RPO)
- Exam
- CISA & CISM
- Definition
The maximum acceptable data loss, measured in time.
- Explained
The RPO is the maximum acceptable data loss, expressed as time before the disruption. It determines how often data must be backed up or replicated; a one-hour RPO cannot be met with nightly backups.
- In practice
No more than one hour of transactions may be lost, so backups or replication must run at least hourly.
- Often confused with
- Recovery time objective
- Exam angle
Drives backup and replication frequency.
- Related