Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery built around your service priorities

Your recovery environment should be able to restore the services your organisation needs, in the order it needs them. Afrocentric IP connects disaster recovery planning, technical architecture and implementation so recovery decisions reflect operational priorities.

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Why this service matters

Recovery designed around your applications

Start with the application or service that needs to recover, then identify the dependencies that make it usable. We help connect recovery objectives to architecture, protected data, restoration procedures and operating decisions. This includes the relationships between identity, connectivity, platforms, integrations and user access.

Assessment, design and validation

The agreed scope can address assessment, design, implementation and recovery validation.

Workloads, scenarios and activation

Establish which workloads and interruption scenarios are included, who authorises activation and how the service owner will accept the result.

Existing recovery investment

Existing recovery investment should be assessed alongside gaps rather than assumed unsuitable.

Responsibilities and evidence

A clear proposal distinguishes the capability to deliver, customer and supplier responsibilities, and the evidence needed to evaluate recovery and the return to normal operation.

Our service capabilities

Recovery assessment, architecture and implementation

Recovery work connects the application requirement to the resources and procedures needed to restore it. We assess dependencies, choose an appropriate architecture and validate the restoration sequence with the people responsible for accepting the recovered service.

Start with the workloads

We start with the workloads, dependencies and recovery objectives that matter to the organisation. The design needs to reflect how a service becomes usable, not simply how a component is restarted.

Choose the recovery option

Recovery options may include on-premises, cloud or hybrid arrangements. We assess the operating requirements and dependencies before recommending an approach.

Agree clear ownership

Activation, restoration, user acceptance and failback need clear ownership. The customer, internal teams and providers should understand the actions and decisions expected of each.

Test and improve readiness

Testing helps identify delays, missing dependencies and assumptions that affect recovery. We use evidence from the agreed scope to inform remediation and ongoing readiness.

Disaster Recovery

How we address your requirements

We assess dependencies, choose an appropriate architecture and validate the restoration sequence with the people responsible for accepting the recovered service.

Recover the complete service chain

A recovered server is one step towards a usable service. Identity, DNS, network routes, databases, interfaces and user permissions may all affect restoration. We help map those dependencies and define a practical sequence. The recovery design should account for the selected interruption scenario, including whether the normal administration environment remains available and which supporting suppliers must participate.

Agree recovery objectives and verify the results

RTO is the target restoration period for a defined service; RPO is the required information recovery point. Agree both with service owners and specify what starts the clock and what counts as restoration. During testing, measure usable access and the recovered information point against those definitions. This makes the result comparable with the requirement rather than a platform’s advertised capability.

Design backup around restoration needs

Recovery depends on usable information, configuration and application state. Assess available recovery points and confirm that the selected method fits the interruption. Replication may support a site failure while also reproducing corruption or an unwanted change. Backup and recovery design should therefore examine trusted recovery options, necessary credentials and the ability to restore without relying entirely on the failed environment.

Test the plan and close practical gaps

We help define a controlled test against the recovery question that matters. The scope can examine a component, an application or a complete service, with explicit safety boundaries and customer participation. Record restoration time, information integrity, access and unresolved dependencies. Service owners validate the usable result, while technical teams retain the findings needed to maintain or improve the recovery procedures.

Make external dependencies visible

Cloud platforms, telecommunications providers, software support and shared services may control part of the recovery sequence. Identify the required contribution, contact route and operating commitment for each. Check how access and support will work during the selected outage. A recovery design needs these interfaces alongside the environment specification so the organisation understands which actions it can perform independently.

Prioritise improvements that can be delivered

A recovery review can expose capacity shortages, undocumented tasks or an objective the current design cannot achieve. Prioritise findings through service consequence and implementation dependencies. We help connect changes to accountable owners, funding decisions and retesting. The roadmap shows which recovery improvements are proposed, which are in place and which have been tested.

Built for critical and regulated environments

Public sector and regulated organisations

Modern public sector building — Disaster recovery for essential public services

01 / Public institutions

Disaster recovery for public institutions

For a public institution, disaster recovery must be assessed against the service it enables and the institution’s applicable requirements.

Do not assume failover and failback are mirror operations. Data may change during recovery operation, and a return without reconciliation can lose or duplicate transactions.

We start by reviewing the current environment, the requirements that apply and the outcomes your organisation needs.

02 / Regulated industries

Recovery priorities follow the service

In financial services, retail and mining, recovery priorities may centre on payment platforms, transaction records, distributed locations or production-supporting applications.

Example recovery priorities

Financial services and retail Payment platforms, transaction records and distributed locations
Mining Production-supporting applications

Test the complete operating service, not only a virtual machine restarting.

From plan to implementation

Implementing the recovery environment and runbooks

We connect workload assessment, recovery architecture, runbooks and validation through a defined project. Options can include on-premises, cloud or hybrid recovery and Disaster Recovery as a Service. The selection depends on application requirements, connectivity, capacity and operational responsibilities.

Workload Assessment

Assess the workloads, dependencies and recovery objectives that matter to the organisation.

Recovery Architecture

Select on-premises, cloud, hybrid or Disaster Recovery as a Service options against operating requirements.

Runbooks

Maintain dependency diagrams, runbooks and test results to support handover.

Validation

Establish how the recovered service is accepted, and plan failback separately.

Validation, evidence and handover

Recovery testing, acceptance and handover

Agree the application, access and information checks that establish a usable recovered service. Include the restoration clock, observed recovery point and treatment of temporary processing. Technical teams retain the sequence and results; service owners validate the operating outcome. Any unavailable interface or supplier contribution is recorded as a limitation, giving management a clear view of the recovery capability demonstrated by the test.

ACCEPTANCE EVIDENCE

Evidence can include

Dependency diagram
Task runbooks
Service acceptance tests
Failback and reconciliation plan

Scope matters. Deliverables and tests are confirmed in the project scope. Your team confirms business priorities and validates outcomes that depend on how the service is used.

Ownership after delivery

Handover and ongoing responsibilities

Handover should identify the maintained runbooks, configuration records, recovery contacts and tested limitations. Confirm who updates the arrangement after system changes. Retain the results of recovery and failback checks so future teams understand the environment and the assumptions behind its capability.

FROM TESTED RECOVERY TO USABLE CAPABILITY

Proven experience and practical insight

Relevant experience

Shared recovery resources and cross-departmental coordination

Shared disaster recovery work

Limpopo Provincial Government

Afrocentric IP designed and implemented a shared disaster recovery solution for Limpopo Provincial Government in partnership with the Office of the Premier. It serves all 11 provincial departments.

What this means for new engagements

This experience informs discussions about shared recovery resources and cross-departmental coordination, with objectives and acceptance established for the workloads in each new engagement.

Professional overlooking the city — Illustrative imagery

What you can expect

What you can expect.

Typical outputs DEPENDING ON SCOPE

RECOVERY DELIVERABLES 06 POTENTIAL OUTPUTS

01 A workload and dependency assessment
02 Recovery architecture
03 Recovery runbooks
04 Test evidence
05 A failback approach
06 An improvement roadmap where required

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions.

DISASTER RECOVERY

Start with the application or service that needs to recover, then identify the dependencies that make it usable.

01 What is disaster recovery?

Disaster recovery restores ICT services and information after disruption. It connects recovery resources, protected data, procedures and decision authority so the organisation can resume the defined service.

02 What are RTO and RPO?

RTO defines the target restoration period. RPO identifies the required data recovery point. Both need a clearly defined service, business rationale and test evidence showing what the actual arrangement can achieve.

03 Should we use cloud or on-premise recovery?

Compare workload compatibility, connectivity, operating control, cost and recovery dependencies. A hybrid approach may be appropriate. The preferred option should support the agreed service objectives and practical operating responsibilities.

04 What does DRaaS include?

Disaster Recovery as a Service uses a provider arrangement to support recovery capability. The agreed scope must identify included workloads, resources, responsibilities, activation, testing and exclusions. The service name alone does not establish an achievable recovery time.

05 How are failover and failback different?

Failover moves operation to an alternative arrangement. Failback returns it to normal operation. Changed information, outstanding transactions and interfaces need reconciliation, so the return should have its own controlled procedure and acceptance checks.

06 What should a recovery test demonstrate?

Demonstrate the scoped service’s usability, recovered information point and restoration time. Record excluded dependencies and unresolved findings so the organisation understands what was established and what remains to be addressed.

DISASTER RECOVERY · 06 QUESTIONS

Let's build a more resilient tomorrow.

Discuss your disaster recovery needs. We will connect recovery objectives, architecture and testing to the services your organisation must restore.

Call us +27 11 214 0000
Email us info@afrocentricip.com
Book a consultation Discuss your requirements with our specialists.

Expert guidance
Practical solutions
A long-term partner