Maximum Acceptable Outage (MAO)

From Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Disaster Recovery (DR) Wiki Glossary

1. Maximum Acceptable Outage or MAO is the time frame during which a recovery must become effective before an outage compromises the ability of an organization to achieve its business objectives and/or survival. Related Terms: Recovery Objectives. BCMBoK Competency Level BCMBoK 3: Business Impact Analysis CL 1: Foundation BCMBoK Competency Level BCMBoK 3: Business Impact Analysis CL 4: Intermediate (DR)

(Source: Business Continuity Management Institute - BCM Institute)

2. The maximum period of time that critical business processes can operate before the loss of critical resources affects their operations.

(Source: HB 221:2004 Business Continuity Management)

(Source: Australia. A Practitioner's Guide to Business Continuity Management HB292 - 2006 )

3. The maximum period of time that an organization can tolerate the disruption of a critical business function, before the achievement of objectives is adversely affected.

NOTE: Also known as Maximum Tolerable Outage (MTO), maximum downtime (MD). Maximum Tolerable Period Downtime (MTPD).

(Source: AS/NZS 5050.1 Australian and New Zealand Standards for business continuity management.

Part 1: Business continuity management system specification)

4. The maximum period of time that an organization can tolerate the disruption of a critical business function, before the achievement of objectives is adversely affected.

NOTE: Also known as maximum tolerable outage (MTO), maximum downtime (MD). Maximum Tolerable Period Downtime (MTPD).

(Source: AS/NZS 5050.2 Australian and New Zealand Standards for business continuity management.

Part 2: Business continuity management practice standard)