(ISC)2 Certified in Cybersecurity Practice Exam

What disaster recovery metric indicates the targeted amount of time to restore a service after a failure?

1. MTTR

2. RPO

3. RTO

4. Service Level Agreement

The correct answer is: RTO

The metric that indicates the targeted amount of time to restore a service after a failure is the Recovery Time Objective (RTO). RTO is a critical aspect of disaster recovery and business continuity planning, as it defines the maximum acceptable downtime for a service or system. It helps organizations determine how quickly they need to respond to incidents in order to minimize disruption to operations and loss of revenue or data. When developing disaster recovery plans, understanding the RTO allows teams to allocate resources effectively, implement appropriate strategies, and establish clear recovery actions to ensure services are back up and running within the specified timeframe after an outage occurs. It serves as a performance benchmark for disaster recovery efforts, guiding decision-making processes related to technology, personnel, and procedures. In contrast, other metrics such as Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) focus on the average time taken to repair a system rather than the target restoration time after a failure. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) refers to the maximum tolerable period during which data might be lost due to a catastrophic event, focusing on data loss rather than service restoration. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are formal agreements between service providers and customers that outline the expected service delivery standards and responsibilities, but they do not specifically dictate recovery times in the