Disaster Recovery with Azure Site Recovery

Backup and DR are not the same thing

It is common to confuse backup and disaster recovery (DR), but they solve different problems. Backup preserves copies to recover lost data. DR keeps the operation running after a disaster that takes down an entire site. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is Microsoft's service for orchestrating that continuity, replicating workloads and enabling failover to Azure or across regions.

As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, RHC designs DR plans with ASR aligned to the business's RTO and RPO objectives.

Backup vs DR: the distinction that matters

A mature strategy has both: backup for data loss and DR for broad unavailability.

How Azure Site Recovery works

ASR continuously replicates workloads to a target and lets you orchestrate failover:

• Replication of Azure VMs to another region, or on-premises VMs (VMware, Hyper-V, physical) to Azure.
• Recovery points that are application-consistent and crash-consistent.
• Failover planned or unplanned to the target.
• Failback to the original site when it recovers.
• Recovery plans that orchestrate the order in which workloads come up.

Designing the DR plan

An effective DR plan starts from business questions:

1. Which applications are critical and in what order should they return?
2. What RTO does each require (maximum downtime)?
3. What RPO does each tolerate (maximum data loss)?
4. What dependencies exist between them (network, identity, database)?
5. Which target region meets compliance and latency?

From these answers emerge the replication design, failover groups and recovery plans.

Recovery plans and startup order

Applications do not come up in just any order. A recovery plan in ASR defines:

• Groups of VMs that start together.
• Sequence between groups (for example, database before application).
• Automated actions (scripts, runbooks) between steps.
• Network configuration at the target so services find each other.

This turns a chaotic failover into an ordered, repeatable procedure.

Non-disruptive testing: the differentiator

ASR's greatest value is the test failover without affecting production. In an isolated network, you bring up the replicated workloads, validate functionality and tear everything down, without touching the live environment. This lets you:

• Prove that DR actually works.
• Measure the real end-to-end RTO.
• Train the team on the procedure.
• Adjust recovery plans before a real event.

A never-tested DR plan is just an intention.

Integration with the continuity strategy

DR is one piece of BCDR (business continuity and disaster recovery). It should connect to:

• Backup for data-loss scenarios.
• Resilient identity (Entra ID) that survives site failure.
• Crisis communication and defined roles.
• Runbooks documented and accessible during the incident.

Key takeaways

• Backup recovers data; DR keeps the operation running after a broad disaster.
• Azure Site Recovery replicates workloads and orchestrates failover and failback.
• Design the plan from RTO, RPO and dependencies per application.
• Use recovery plans to order the startup of workloads.
• Test the failover non-disruptively to prove and measure real RTO.
• Integrate DR into the BCDR whole, with backup and resilient identity.

RHC designs, implements and tests DR plans with Azure Site Recovery, ensuring recovery is proven, not assumed.