The recovery time objective (RTO) is the planned recovery time for a process or system which should occur before reaching the business process’s maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) or maximum allowable outage (MAO). The RTO must be aligned with the MAO to ensure that the continuity of the business process is not compromised by a prolonged outage. The RTO is determined by the business impact analysis (BIA) based on the criticality and urgency of the business process and its dependencies. The RTO also helps to select and implement appropriate recovery methods and procedures for the process or system. References = Risk and Information Systems Control Study Manual, Chapter 6: IT Risk Monitoring and Reporting, Section 6.2: ITRisk Reporting, Page 307; What is the difference between RPO, RTO, and MTD? - Tandem Blog.