RPO stands for Recovery Point Objective, which is a time-based measurement of the maximum amount of data loss that an organization can tolerate. It is a planning objective that defines how often data needs to be backed up to enable recovery. RPO helps determine how much data a company can tolerate losing during an unforeseen event. It is generally thought of as the point in time before the event at which data can be successfully recovered. RPO is one of the key parameters that define how much data loss an organization can tolerate, the other being Recovery Time Objective (RTO) . While RTO deals with the time to recover, RPO deals with the maximum amount of data loss that a company can experience within a period most relevant to its business before significant harm occurs. RPOs work by defining the duration of time that can pass before the volume of data loss exceeds what is allowed as part of a business continuity plan (BCP) .