A financial services firm's core trading database must never lose more than 5 minutes of transactions if a disaster occurs, but the business can tolerate the trading application itself being unavailable for up to 4 hours while it is restored. Which pair of disaster recovery metrics correctly captures these two requirements?
- A. RPO of 5 minutes and RTO of 4 hours Correct
- B. RTO of 5 minutes and RPO of 4 hours
- C. RPO of 4 hours and RTO of 4 hours
- D. RTO of 5 minutes and RTO of 4 hours
Why A is correct
The 5-minute tolerance for lost transactions describes the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) — how much data you can afford to lose. The 4-hour tolerance for downtime describes the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) — how long you can afford to be down. Match each number to what it measures and the answer falls out.
Why the others are incorrect
Swapping the two metrics assigns the wrong requirement to each number — the classic RPO/RTO trap. Using 4 hours for both ignores the much stricter 5-minute data-loss requirement. And labeling both figures as RTO omits the data-loss requirement entirely.