The creation of IT governance and digital security policies involves a series of factors. Backup routines, for example, need to be planned keeping in mind the type of media that will be used to store information according to the business profile. On the other hand, network maintenance processes must prevent modifications from making the digital environment less secure.
In this sense, managers have two concepts to assist in defining each measure that will be taken to make the IT infrastructure robust and reliable. Called RTO and RPO, they are indicators that provide a comprehensive view of how the business will handle problems. Learn the characteristics of each one below!
What is RTO?
Standing for Recovery Time Objective, RTO is an indicator that measures the maximum time a system or information can remain unavailable after a failure.
RTO gives IT professionals an accurate view of the ideal timeframe for IT systems to be rebooted if something happens to the business infrastructure. It is used in data backup policies and, in this scenario, helps define the time between the replication of each piece of information saved in backups.
In systems, it also regulates the minimum level of availability an application can have, ensuring the continuity of IT services. In the case of critical solutions, which generally must be available at all times, for example, the RTO tends to be lower, indicating the need to maintain redundant IT assets.
What is RPO?
Standing for Recovery Point Objective, RPO is the indicator used so that the company knows the minimum amount of resources to be recovered in case of failures or data loss.
In a data backup policy, for example, it indicates the amount of information a company is willing to lose if a major failure occurs without the business suffering severe losses.
Although it is ideal to be able to recover all information after a failure, the company does not always have the necessary resources to execute continuous backups. Therefore, it is important to define a minimum interval for creating each backup: and this is where RPO comes in, giving managers a precise notion of the amount of records that can be eliminated without causing major damage to the company.
How do metrics like RTO and RPO help the company?
Metrics like RTO and RPO are crucial for the company to plan its digital security policies. It is through them that the IT sector can identify damages and know with greater precision how long the company will need to resolve the problem. This ensures that the damage caused is minimized, since damage mitigation policies will be able to handle damages through intelligent processes.
This makes planning more effective, creating a more accurate way to ensure the maintenance of business services after failures and attacks. Thus, integrated into the Crisis Management Program, they will prevent losses from occurring frequently.
Do you already have a Crisis Management Program? If you don’t have one, learn how to make yours!
