What term describes the time expected to restore systems after an outage?

The term that describes the time expected to restore systems after an outage is Recovery Time Objective (RTO). RTO is an essential component of business continuity and disaster recovery planning. It defines the maximum amount of time that a business can tolerate being without a specific system or service before significant disruption occurs. Essentially, RTO helps organizations determine how quickly they need to recover their operations to minimize impact on the business.

This metric is crucial for developing tailored recovery strategies, prioritizing resources during the recovery process, and ensuring that necessary measures are in place to meet the established recovery time. RTO serves as a guideline for decision-making both during and after a disruption event, aiding in the allocation of necessary resources for achieving efficient recovery.

For clarity, Maximum Tolerable Downtime relates to the absolute maximum time a system can be down before the organization is critically impacted, while Recovery Point Objective focuses on the maximum data loss allowance measured in time, rather than the time to restore systems. Incident Response Time refers to the duration taken to respond to a security incident, which is different from the recovery process. Ultimately, RTO specifically targets restoration timelines, making it the correct term in this context.