What does Recovery Point Objective (RPO) measure?

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) specifically measures the maximum acceptable amount of data loss in terms of time. It defines the age of the files that must be recovered from backup storage for normal operations to resume if a failure occurs. In essence, RPO indicates how often data backups should occur to ensure that the data retained meets organizational requirements.

For instance, if a company has an RPO of four hours, it means that in the event of a disruption, the most recent backup that can be restored to ensure business continuity will be no older than four hours prior to the disruption, thereby determining the acceptable window of potential data loss.

This concept is critical in disaster recovery and business continuity planning, as it helps organizations balance the cost of data backup frequency against potential data losses in the event of a system failure. This focus on time rather than specific volumes of data is what distinctly characterizes RPO within the broader context of data management strategies.