The Problem: Ensuring resilient AWS workloads in a hybrid environment
A large financial institution, operating a critical hybrid IT infrastructure that included workloads on Amazon Web Services (AWS) alongside on-premises data centers, recognized the paramount importance of robust resilience and rapid recovery capabilities. The company needed to enhance the reliability and availability of its vital AWS-based services. Ensuring seamless failover and failback of these cloud workloads between Availability Zones (AZs) was crucial for maintaining uninterrupted operations and minimizing potential disruptions.
Existing manual methods, often relying on spreadsheets, proved inadequate for managing the intricate dependencies and coordinated actions required for a smooth AWS AZ failover. They needed a centralized solution that could bring together various teams and provide clear orchestration for these critical cloud-based processes.
The Solution: Leveraging Cutover runbooks for accelerated failovers
To address the need for improved AWS workload resilience, the company implemented Cutover's automated runbook platform. The platform also facilitated successful data center failover testing, and was particularly impactful in streamlining and accelerating their AWS AZ failover processes. Cutover enabled the creation of detailed runbooks that included critical pre-flight checks, real-time DNS server monitoring, and validation tasks specifically tailored for their AWS environment.
The Cutover platform provided the company with the ability to meticulously track the performance and monitor the failover of each application within their AWS environment using detailed, real-time analytics. This level of visibility and control was a significant improvement over previous manual methods, offering a clear understanding of the failover progress and potential issues within their cloud infrastructure.
The Outcome: Achieving significantly faster and more reliable AWS failover
By utilizing Cutover, the financial company achieved significant improvements in its AWS workload failover capabilities. During a recent failover exercise, the team experienced over 20% faster completion times compared to previous manual attempts. This acceleration in recovery directly translated to reduced potential downtime and enhanced resilience for their critical AWS-based services.
With Cutover, the company gained the confidence to ensure the high availability of its AWS workloads, significantly reducing the risk of service disruptions and bolstering its overall resilience posture. The platform's ease of use and repeatability now allow the company to conduct AWS workload failovers as frequently as needed, ensuring continuous operational readiness within their cloud environment. This standardized approach has enabled them to expand the scope of their resilience testing to include more AWS applications, teams, and complexity, further strengthening their cloud infrastructure.
