Reliability and recovery
Engineer Azure reliability around service objectives and tested recovery.
We separate high availability, backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity, then connect architecture, telemetry, runbooks, restore tests, failover exercises, RTO, and RPO.
Recovery dependency order
HA
Keep service available inside the active region.
Backup
Restore protected state to a known recovery point.
DR
Re-establish service in the recovery location.
- 1Identity and network
- 2Data services
- 3Shared platform
- 4Applications
- 5Business validation
- Service intent
- SLI and SLOMeasures reflect critical user and business behavior.
- Recovery targets
- RTO and RPOTargets are assigned by service and dependency.
- Proof
- ExercisesRestore and failover are timed and validated.
Continuity concepts
Availability, backup, disaster recovery, and continuity solve different problems.
A resilient design uses the needed combination rather than treating the terms as synonyms.
| Area | Primary purpose | Typical mechanism | Validation |
|---|---|---|---|
| High availability | Continue service through component failure | Redundancy, availability zones, health-based routing | Fault and zone-loss testing |
| Backup | Recover data or configuration from loss or corruption | Azure Backup, snapshots, vaults, immutable options | Restore and integrity test |
| Disaster recovery | Restore service after site or regional loss | Azure Site Recovery, replicated data, secondary region | Failover and failback exercise |
| Business continuity | Sustain critical business activity during disruption | People, process, technology, suppliers, communications | Business-led continuity exercise |
Reliability engineering
Reliability joins architecture, observability, protection, and response.
Design depth follows service criticality and approved RTO and RPO targets.
Service objectives
Define service-level indicators and objectives for critical journeys, dependencies, latency, availability, quality, and durability.
Failure architecture
Evaluate availability zones, fault domains, load balancing, graceful degradation, queueing, data consistency, and multi-region options.
Observability
Instrument applications and dependencies with Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Log Analytics, and OpenTelemetry where suitable.
Protection and recovery
Configure Azure Backup or Azure Site Recovery as appropriate, sequence dependencies, and prepare restore, failover, failback, and communication procedures.
Exercise cycle
Recovery capability is measured through planned exercises.
Exercises avoid uncontrolled production impact and state which assumptions they test.
- 01
Set targets
Confirm service scope, dependencies, RTO, RPO, data integrity, authority, and acceptable test impact.
- 02
Prepare
Verify configuration and access, select scenario, draft steps, capture baseline telemetry, and define stop conditions.
- 03
Exercise
Run restore or failover steps, record timings, validate application and data behavior, and test communications.
- 04
Improve and repeat
Assign gaps, update architecture and runbooks, retest material changes, and record residual exposure.
Reliability assets
Artifacts connect service objectives to architecture and recovery procedures.
The set is maintained by the teams that own the service after transfer.
- 01
Service reliability model
Critical journeys, dependencies, SLI and SLO definitions, failure modes, availability design, and ownership.
- 02
Observability specification
Telemetry sources, OpenTelemetry instrumentation, dashboards, alerts, thresholds, context, retention, and action.
- 03
Recovery design
RTO, RPO, backup, replication, zones or regions, dependency order, access, capacity, and failback.
- 04
Exercise record
Scenario, baseline, steps, measured timings, integrity results, communications, gaps, and assigned improvements.
Reliability fit
Reliability work requires business targets and application participation.
Sense Cloud can facilitate technical exercises; business continuity remains customer-led unless separately included.
Best suited to
- Critical Azure services
- Untested backup or disaster-recovery configurations
- SLO and observability design
Needed to begin
- Service and dependency owners available
- RTO and RPO approved or ready to define
- Safe test scope and change authorization
Customer responsibilities
- Set business tolerance and continuity priorities
- Provide business validation and communications
- Approve exercise impact and residual exposure
Not included by default
- Guaranteed availability or recovery outcome
- Business continuity ownership unless explicitly included
- Uncontrolled destructive testing