Disaster Planning

How to Calculate Business Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Posted on by Tolar Editor
IT support management team talks by computer
20
Jul

One of the most important aspects of business continuity planning is understanding how much time your business needs to recover from a disaster. This is what is known as your recovery time objective, or RTO. 

In this blog post, we will explain what an RTO is and how to calculate it for your business.

What Is Recover Time Objective?

So, what is RTO? It is the amount of time that your business can tolerate being without access to its critical systems and data. This could be due to a natural disaster, power outage, cyber attack, or any other type of disruption. The goal of RTO is to minimize the impact of an outage on your business.

Getting Started

There are a few factors that you will need to consider when calculating your RTO:

  • The severity of the outage: How much will the outage impact your business?
  • The frequency of the outage: How often does this type of outage occur?
  • The duration of the outage: How long will the outage last?
  • The cost of the outage: How much money will the outage cost your business?

You will also need to consider the resources that are required for recovery. This includes things like personnel, equipment, and facilities. Once you have all of this information, you can begin to calculate your RTO.

The Relationship Between RTO and Disaster Recovery

It is important to understand the relationship between RTO and disaster recovery. Disaster recovery is the process of restoring your critical systems and data after a disaster. Your RTO is the amount of time that you have to do this, or the goal that you need to meet for your disaster recovery plan.

What Factors Impact RTO?

These are factors that can impact your RTO:

  • The type of business: Some businesses are more critical than others. For example, a hospital will have a different recovery time objective than a retail store.
  • The size of the business: A small business will have a different recovery time objectives than a large enterprise.
  • The location of the business: A business in a hurricane zone will have a different recovery time objective than a business in a desert.
  • The dependencies of the business: A business that is dependent on other businesses will have a different recovery time objective than a business that is not.
  • The resources of the business: A business with more resources will have a different recovery time objective than a business with less resources.

How to Calculate RTO

Now that we have reviewed what an RTO is and what factors impact it, let’s discuss how to calculate it. There are a few steps that you will need to follow:

  1. Determine the maximum tolerable downtime for each critical process.
  2. Identify the resources required for each critical process.
  3. Determine the time it will take to acquire or create the resources required for each critical process.
  4. Add the maximum tolerable downtime and the time to acquire or create resources to get your RTO.

Keep in mind that your RTO is a goal. It is not a guarantee. There are many factors that can impact your ability to meet your goal. However, if you have a well-thought-out plan and the right resources, you will be in a good position to meet your RTO.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, reach out to Tolar Systems today.

Tolar Editor