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AWS · Elastic DR · Route 53 · Multi-Region · Aurora Global · RTO · RPO · Tested
A DR Plan That Has Never Been Tested
Is Not DR. It Is a Hope.Most enterprise AWS DR configurations have never been tested end-to-end. Route 53 TTLs are set to 3600 seconds. Aurora Global secondaries are minor versions behind. Failover runbooks reference decommissioned services. Symhas designs, deploys, and tests AWS disaster recovery before the engagement ends.Symhas implements Elastic Disaster Recovery, Route 53 health-check failover, Aurora Global Database, and pre-deployed DR region infrastructure — with RTO and RPO agreed in writing before deployment starts, and a live failover test completed before handover.
<1hrRTO achieved across all Symhas AWS DR implementations — measured in the live drill, not estimated
<15minRPO from Aurora Global Database and Elastic DR continuous replication lag
TestedEvery Symhas DR engagement ends with a live failover drill and documented results
8wkAWS DR architecture, deployment, and live failover test — fixed price
AWS certified architects available nowActive
<1hrRTO achieved across all Symhas AWS DR implementations — measured in the live drill
<15minRPO from Aurora Global and Elastic DR continuous replication
TestedEvery engagement ends with a live failover drill — RTO and RPO measured, not estimated
8wkAWS DR design, deployment, and live tested failover — fixed price
What We Deliver
Core Capabilities.
Production-Grade on AWS.

Every capability designed, deployed, and documented by Symhas AWS-certified architects. Fixed price. SLA-backed from go-live.

AWS Elastic Disaster RecoveryContinuous replication · Sub-hour RTO · Launch templates · Non-disruptive drill
AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery continuously replicates source servers to AWS at block level — maintaining a recovery point minutes old, with launch templates defining recovery instance configuration exactly, and the ability to launch recovery instances automatically on trigger.
DRS agent deployment — on-premises, EC2, VMware, or other cloud source
Block-level continuous replication — RPO typically under 5 minutes per server
Launch template per server — instance type, VPC, security groups, IAM role, user data
Non-disruptive drill — recovery instance launched and tested without impacting production source
Automated failover — EventBridge health check trigger launches recovery instances automatically
Sub-hour RTO for every replicated server — tested in the drill before the engagement ends
Route 53 Failover & Multi-Region DNSHealth checks · Failover policy · Active-active · TTL · Global Accelerator
Route 53 health-check-driven failover redirects DNS to the DR region automatically when primary health checks fail — no manual DNS change extending the RTO. TTLs set to 60 seconds ensure failover propagates within the required window.
Application-layer health checks — HTTP/S checks on primary ALB or NLB endpoints
Failover routing policy — DNS updates to DR region automatically on health check failure
Weighted routing for active-active — traffic split across regions with adjustable weights
60-second TTL — on all failover records, validated before any drill
Global Accelerator — anycast endpoint with automatic unhealthy region removal
DNS redirects to DR region in under 60 seconds — no manual intervention required
Aurora Global Database & RDSAurora Global · Sub-second lag · Managed failover · Multi-AZ · PITR
Aurora Global Database replicates data to a secondary region with sub-second lag — enabling promotion to primary in under one minute with application data current to within seconds of the failure event.
Aurora Global cluster — primary plus secondary regions, sub-second replication lag
Managed planned failover — no data loss, used for maintenance
Unplanned failover — automatic detection, secondary promotion under 60 seconds
RDS Multi-AZ — synchronous standby in second AZ for single-region high availability
Point-in-time recovery — restore to any second within retention for data corruption
Database in DR region within 60 seconds of primary failure — data current to within seconds
DR Runbooks & Live Failover TestingRunbook · Live drill · RTO measurement · Failback · Annual schedule
DR without tested runbooks is infrastructure, not capability. Symhas writes and tests runbooks for every scenario — planned failover, unplanned failover, partial failure, and failback — and executes a full live drill with measured RTO and RPO before the engagement ends.
Failover runbook — step-by-step procedures with estimated times per step
Failback runbook — returning to primary with data reconciliation steps
Live DR drill — full failover, RTO and RPO measured against agreed targets
Documented results — drill timeline, actual RTO, actual RPO, deviations noted
Annual drill schedule — calendar and ownership established at handover
DR capability verified, not assumed — RTO and RPO backed by a drill result
Delivery Model
Assessment to Production.
Fixed Price. Fixed Timeline.

Four phases with go/no-go gates. Scope and price agreed before week one.

01
DR Requirements & Region DesignWeeks 1–2

RTO and RPO agreed per workload tier in writing. DR region selected. Replication strategy — DRS, Aurora Global, S3 CRR — assigned per workload. DR region network architecture designed. Cost model produced.

02
DR Infrastructure BuildWeeks 3–5

DR region VPC and networking pre-deployed via Terraform. DRS agents installed and replication started. Aurora Global secondary deployed and lag confirmed. Route 53 health checks and failover policies configured. TTLs set to 60 seconds.

03
Runbooks & Integration TestingWeeks 6–7

Failover and failback runbooks written and reviewed. Application teams trained on DR responsibilities. Route 53 failover tested with simulated health check failure. Individual DR components tested without impacting production.

04
Live DR Drill & HandoverWeek 8

Full live failover to DR region executed. RTO and RPO measured against agreed targets. Failback to primary completed. Drill results documented. Annual drill schedule established. Symhas moves to advisory.

Energy & Utilities · AWS DRTop-5 US Utility.
43-Minute RTO. 2M+ Customers. Live Drill. First Time Ever Tested.

A top-5 US utility had an AWS DR architecture untested in 3 years. Route 53 TTL was 3600 seconds. The Aurora Global secondary was 2 minor versions behind. The failover runbook referenced 4 decommissioned services.

Symhas redesigned and tested the AWS DR programme — Aurora Global secondary updated, TTLs reduced to 60 seconds, Elastic DRS deployed for 47 application servers, and a live drill completed with RTO of 43 minutes against a 60-minute target.

43minActual RTO in live drill
<5minActual RPO in live drill
60sDNS failover time
8wkAssessment to tested DR
Discuss Your Programme →
What was delivered

AWS DR Architecture — Energy Utility Live Drill Results

→Aurora Global — primary us-east-1, secondary us-west-2, replication lag under 800ms
→Elastic DRS — 47 application servers, RPO under 5 minutes per server
→Route 53 — TTLs 3600s to 60s, failover policy on all primary ALB endpoints
→DR region networking — VPC, subnets, security groups pre-deployed via Terraform
→Live drill — failover at 08:00, first customer service available in DR region at 08:43
→Measured: RTO 43 minutes, RPO 4 minutes 12 seconds — both within agreed targets

“We told our board we had a 1-hour RTO for 3 years. We had never tested it. Symhas ran the drill and we hit 43 minutes. For the first time our DR claim is backed by a result.”

— CTO, Top-5 US Utility

AWS Services Deployed
The Specific AWS Services
We Configure for This Capability.
AWS
AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery

Server replication and recovery — continuous block replication, launch templates, drill and failover.

Agent deployment and replication
Launch template configuration
Non-disruptive recovery drill
Automated failover trigger
AWS
Amazon Route 53

DNS failover — health-check-driven automatic redirection to DR region in under 60 seconds.

Application-layer health checks
Failover routing policy
60-second TTL configuration
Global Accelerator option
AWS
Aurora Global Database

Cross-region replication — sub-second lag, managed promotion, under-60-second failover.

Global cluster configuration
Secondary region provisioning
Managed failover procedure
Replication lag monitoring alarm
AWS
AWS Backup

Centralised backup — cross-region copy, vault lock for immutability, restore testing schedule.

Backup plan and vault
Cross-region copy rule
Vault lock for compliance
Restore test schedule
AWS
CloudFormation StackSets

DR region baseline — networking and IAM pre-deployed via StackSets before the drill.

DR region resource baseline
Automatic deployment
Drift detection in DR region
Update propagation
AWS
S3 Cross-Region Replication

Object storage DR — real-time replication to DR region with Replication Time Control option.

CRR per bucket
Replication Time Control
Delete marker replication
Replication metrics and alerts
Why Symhas
AWS Expertise Built from Production Deployments.
RTO and RPO Agreed in Writing Before DeploymentDR without targets is never tested. Symhas agrees RTO and RPO per workload tier before the first resource is deployed — and measures against them in the live drill.
Live Drill Is a Handover RequirementA DR configuration never tested is not DR. The engagement does not end until a live failover drill is completed, results documented, and failback confirmed.
DR Region Pre-Deployed Before the Drill"Provision VPC" as step 1 of the failover runbook adds hours to RTO. Symhas pre-deploys all DR region infrastructure via Terraform — it exists before the failover begins.
Aurora Global Lag Monitored ContinuouslyAurora Global lag can grow silently. Symhas configures CloudWatch alarms on replication lag — alert fires if lag exceeds 30 seconds, before it becomes an RPO violation.
DNS TTL Set to 60 Seconds Before Day OneA 3600-second TTL means up to 1 hour of DNS propagation delay. Symhas sets TTLs to 60 seconds on all failover records before any testing begins.
Operations Team Certified on FailoverBy handover your team executes the failover runbook and completes failback independently. Trained and certified before Symhas steps back.
Also on AWS
Explore the Other AWS Capabilities.
AWS Landing Zone & Migration

The AWS account structure and networking that DR infrastructure is pre-deployed within.

Zero-Trust Security on AWS

Security controls applied consistently in both primary and DR regions from go-live.

AWS FinOps & Cost Governance

DR region cost governance — idle standby resources right-sized to minimise DR infrastructure spend.

Next Step
Tell Us Your Current RTO and RPO Targets.
We Will Ask When You Last Tested Them.A 30-minute AWS DR assessment with a Symhas cloud architect. We will review your DR architecture, Aurora Global configuration, Route 53 TTLs, and last test date — and tell you what a production-tested DR programme requires.
Book an AWS Assessment — 30 min →View Client Outcomes
No commitment. No pitch deck. An honest conversation about your AWS environment.