SY0-701 Question 438
Single answerA healthcare provider is updating its business impact analysis for a patient records application. The application supports emergency department staff and must be restored within 2 hours of an outage. The organization can tolerate losing no more than 15 minutes of data entered before a disruption. Historical metrics show the storage array that hosts the application fails about once every 18 months, and the infrastructure team typically restores service 45 minutes after a failure occurs. Which option correctly maps these requirements and metrics?
- A
RTO = 2 hours, RPO = 15 minutes, MTBF = 18 months, MTTR = 45 minutes
- B
RPO = 2 hours, RTO = 15 minutes, MTTR = 18 months, MTBF = 45 minutes
- C
MTTR = 2 hours, MTBF = 15 minutes, RTO = 18 months, RPO = 45 minutes
- D
RTO = 45 minutes, RPO = 18 months, MTTR = 2 hours, MTBF = 15 minutes
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
This question tests the ability to distinguish business continuity and reliability metrics in a realistic BIA scenario. In a business impact analysis, RTO defines the maximum acceptable time a system can be down before significant business harm occurs, while RPO defines the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured as time before the disruption. MTTR and MTBF are operational reliability metrics: MTTR measures average time to repair and restore functionality after failure, and MTBF measures average uptime between failures for repairable systems. These definitions align with common industry guidance used in continuity and disaster recovery planning, including NIST contingency planning guidance such as NIST SP 800-34, which discusses recovery objectives and system recovery planning. Correctly mapping these values is essential when selecting backup frequency, redundancy, and service level targets for critical systems such as healthcare applications.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the maximum acceptable downtime, so the requirement to restore the application within 2 hours maps to RTO = 2 hours. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum acceptable data loss measured in time, so tolerating no more than 15 minutes of lost data maps to RPO = 15 minutes. Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) measures the average operational time between failures for repairable systems, so failing about once every 18 months maps to MTBF = 18 months. Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) is the average time to restore service after a failure, so 45 minutes maps to MTTR = 45 minutes.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This option reverses RTO and RPO and also swaps MTTR and MTBF. A common mistake is confusing restoration time with allowable data loss. RTO concerns how long the service can be unavailable, while RPO concerns how much data the business can afford to lose. Likewise, MTTR is the repair duration, not the time between failures.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This option treats business requirements as reliability metrics and vice versa. The 2-hour value is a recovery objective, not a repair average. The 15-minute value reflects tolerable data loss, not time between failures. The 18-month figure reflects average time between failures, not a recovery objective.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This option mismatches every metric. The 45-minute figure is the typical repair time, which aligns with MTTR, not RTO. The 18-month figure cannot be RPO because RPO measures allowable data loss in time before recovery, typically minutes or hours for transactional systems. The 15-minute value is the acceptable data loss window, not MTBF.