HCLTech's Disaster Recovery Solution on Azure (RecoverNXT)

RecoverNXT is a framework that provides end-to-end DR service across enterprise infra landscape leveraging features stitched under workflows to perform tool-based replication across application layers.

RecoverNXT framework consists of four phases and are as follows:

1. Assessment: Involves discovery and analysis of customer’s current environment. Gain information on various application dependencies, existing DR strategy and roadmap.

2. Design and plan: A solution approach is designed, and the best fit tool and deployment model is finalized. The solution design/approach also maintains the project scope. A blueprint for execution is created which consists of selecting tools, finalizing the project scope, project timelines, etc.

3. Build and Implementation: Involves execution of the project activities as per the defined timelines like configuring the tools required, setting up the DR infrastructure, application onboarding, building DR workflows and testing & validating DR drills.

4. Operate & Signoff: In this phase the DR drills test reports are shared with the client, knowledge transfer take place from BAU team to the client. The environment is kept under Hyper care support. The operations are then handed over to the BAU which may exist within HCLTech or at the customer’s end.

The RecoverNXT framework encompasses DR management which provides managed DR solutions to build, operate and manage DR workflows and operations. The framework leverages third party tools serve following use cases:

 •	On prem to Azure – Switchover / Failover and switchback/failback of applications from Physical & Virtual Servers at 
    Production Datacentre to Azure. Hot-Warm and Hot-Cold DR Strategies as per the Application Requirements. Supports both 
    Low RPO – Low RTO solutions and Low RTO-High RPO Solutions. Also provides the benefits of scalability and elasticity of 
    resources when needed.

•	Between Two Azure Environments – Switchover / Failover and Switchback/Failback of applications from Instances at on 
    Azure to the DR Instances on Azure (other geo or region) Hot-Warm and Hot-Cold DR Strategies as per the Application 
    Requirements.

•	DR Automation & Orchestration - The solution framework has capabilities to provide DR process automation and Orchestration, 
    DR drill Automation. It has the capability to provide DR drill automation leveraging Azure DevOps or GitHub providing efficient DR 
    drills by testing the readiness of client’s environment for potential disruption.

• Kubernetes- The solutions have the capability of integrating disaster recovery seamlessly into Kubernetes app deployment, ensuring apps are protected from the start. The replication and DR within the Kubernetes environment can either be provided by using native storage and CSI snapshots to create up-to-date copies of the data present in the environment or through Journaling to enable the checkpoints with a granularity of seconds.

Key features:

• Multi layered DR strategy- This ensures business continuity and data protection in the event of a disaster or data loss. It involves implementing multiple layers or tiers of backup and recovery solutions to provide redundancy and resilience.

• Cross application grouping- A strategy that involves grouping together multiple applications or services that have interdependencies and ensuring their coordinated recovery in the event of a disaster or system failure.

• SLA based recovery plans- It refers to the establishment of recovery objectives and processes that are aligned with specific Service Level Agreements (SLAs). SLAs define the level of service and performance standards that need to be met, and in the context of DR, they outline the expected recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs). The Solution framework can help reduce the RPO and RTO timelines from hours to few minutes.

• Automated DR workflow configuration - It involves setting up and orchestrating the steps and processes required for disaster recovery in an automated and streamlined manner. This automation aims to reduce manual intervention, minimize recovery time, and ensure consistency and reliability in the event of a disaster or system failure.

• Centralized DR management – The solution provides a single glass of plain to monitor and manage the DR. User can have transparent view of the RPO/RTO SLAs, can get detailed reporting across all resources and recovery operations.

Benefits

• Supports stringent customer-defined RTO and RPO

• Enhance visibility within the DR environment

• Support for modern workloads such as K8s

• End-to-End solution to implement and manage DR services recoverability

• Provides reliability through application grouping and consistent workflows