Lesson 1.75: Business impact analysis
When systems go down, what has to come back first, and how much data can the business afford to lose? A business impact analysis (BIA) answers that for each business process, not each server. It sets the maximum tolerable period of disruption (MTPD), the recovery time objective (RTO) that must fit inside it, and the recovery point objective (RPO), the most data loss acceptable. ISO 22301 describes the method. In the lab you check Northwind's BIA for impossible targets, then compare it with how long systems really take to restore and how often they are backed up.
17 min
You will learn to
- Explain MTPD, RTO and RPO
- Check that RTO fits inside MTPD
- Compare targets with real restore times
- Compare RPO with backup intervals
- Set a recovery order
Key terms
- BIA
- Business impact analysis: how a disruption of each process harms the organisation over time.
- MTPD
- Maximum tolerable period of disruption: after this, the damage is unacceptable.
- RTO
- Recovery time objective: when the process must be running again; shorter than the MTPD.
- RPO
- Recovery point objective: the maximum acceptable data loss, measured in time.
- Dependency
- A system or supplier a process needs; its recovery time limits the process.
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