Disaster Recovery Implementation for Faster Recovery and Reduced Data Loss
The client was a medium sized financial services firm with online banking, payment processing and customer support functions. It’s running a hybrid cloud configuration with virtualized application servers, Microsoft SQL databases, Active Directory, file servers, and web apps that had high availability and required reliable data access.
The current Disaster Recovery methodology was not formalized and response times were long, data losses possible and manual recovery processes were in place. Bobcares adopted a structured DR solution that has clearly defined RTO and RPO targets, continuous VM replication, automated backups, failover and failback, database replication, centralized monitoring and DR testing.
Business Challenge
The client required a formal Disaster Recovery solution for mission critical services, and comply with regulatory and business continuity requirements. The current recovery processes were mostly manual, and recovery took up to 8 hours, with irregular backups resulting in the possibility of loss of data in case of infrastructure failures.
Technology Used
Blueprint
Business Impact Analysis classified workloads by criticality and established application-specific RTO and RPO objectives. Virtual machines were continuously replicated to a secondary DR facility, while automated backups, database replication, failover, failback, centralized monitoring, and DR testing supported recovery readiness and validation.
Key Outcomes
- Reduced mean recovery time from 8 hours to 45 minutes.
- Reduced potential data loss from 24 hours to 15 minutes or less.
- Achieved 99.95% application availability.
- Minimized manual intervention through automated failover and failback.
- Improved compliance with regulatory and business continuity requirements.
- Improved confidence in recovery readiness through DR testing.
Customer Profile
The Challenges
- No formalized Disaster Recovery approach existed for mission-critical applications.
- Infrastructure failures could result in recovery times of up to eight hours.
- Irregular backups created the potential for significant data loss.
- Manual recovery procedures could delay operational recovery.
- Regulatory requirements required defined RTO and RPO objectives.
- Backup and replication health could not be effectively checked through centralized monitoring.
Why Bobcares?
- Established recovery priorities through Business Impact Analysis.
- Defined RTO and RPO objectives according to application criticality.
- Combined continuous replication, automated backup, and database replication to address different recovery requirements.
- Automated failover and failback to reduce manual recovery effort.
- Added centralized monitoring to improve visibility into backup and replication readiness.
- Incorporated DR testing to validate the recovery process.
What We Delivered
- Conducted Business Impact Analysis to classify workloads by criticality.
- Established RTO and RPO objectives for applications.
- Implemented continuous replication of virtual machines to the secondary DR facility.
- Configured automated incremental backups.
- Implemented automated failover and failback.
- Implemented database replication using high availability solutions.
- Established centralized monitoring for backup jobs, replication, and recovery readiness.
- Conducted Disaster Recovery testing and validation.
- Supported secure site-to-site connectivity for the DR environment.
The Results
Recovery Time
- Before: Mean recovery time was 8 hours following an infrastructure failure.
- After: Mean recovery time was reduced to 45 minutes.
Data Recovery Point
- Before: Potential data loss could reach 24 hours because of irregular backup processes.
- After: Potential data loss was reduced to 15 minutes or less.
Application Availability
- Before: The existing recovery approach did not provide the required level of recovery readiness for mission-critical applications.
- After: Application availability reached 99.95%.
Recovery Process
- Before: Disaster recovery procedures required significant manual intervention, which could delay operations.
- After: Automated failover and failback minimized manual recovery activities.
DR Validation
- Before: The health and readiness of backup and replication processes were difficult to verify.
- After: Centralized monitoring and DR testing provided greater visibility and recovery confidence.
The Business Impact
- Reduced the operational impact of infrastructure failures.
- Enabled faster recovery of mission-critical business services.
- Reduced the amount of data potentially lost during a disaster.
- Improved continuity for online banking, payment processing, and customer support operations.
- Reduced recovery complexity through automation.
- Strengthened the organization’s ability to meet regulatory and business continuity requirements.
- Increased confidence in the organization’s recovery readiness through regular DR validation.
Ongoing Collaboration
- Monitor backup and replication health.
- Review recovery readiness across critical workloads.
- Validate RTO and RPO objectives against business requirements.
- Conduct Disaster Recovery testing and validation.
- Monitor the DR environment for operational issues.
- Review failover and failback processes.
- Assess recovery requirements as workloads and business needs change.
