Azure Disaster Recovery as a Service — DRaaS
A disaster recovery plan that has never been tested is not a plan — it is a hope. 75% of organisations that experience a major outage without tested DR lose critical data or suffer extended downtime that damages revenue and reputation. Opsio's Azure DRaaS delivers automated replication, tested failover, and SLA-backed recovery so your business survives infrastructure failures, ransomware, and regional outages.
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DR Testing
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Recovery Success
What's Included
Azure Site Recovery
Continuous replication of Azure VMs, Hyper-V VMs, VMware VMs, and physical servers to secondary Azure regions. Application-consistent snapshots every 15 minutes with crash-consistent snapshots every 5 minutes for sub-15-minute RPO.
Automated Recovery Plans
Sequenced failover orchestration with application dependency awareness. Pre- and post-failover scripts for DNS updates, load balancer reconfiguration, and application health verification. One-click failover for rapid activation during actual disasters.
Database DR
Azure SQL geo-replication, Cosmos DB multi-region writes, and PostgreSQL/MySQL read replicas for database-tier disaster recovery. Transaction-consistent failover with automated connection string updates for minimal application impact.
DR Testing & Validation
Quarterly test failovers in isolated network environments that do not affect production. Full application stack validation including database consistency, API functionality, and performance benchmarking. Test results documented for compliance and BCP auditors.
Hybrid & Multi-Cloud DR
On-premises to Azure DR using Azure Site Recovery with Azure Arc. Multi-cloud DR strategies for organisations with workloads across Azure and AWS. Unified monitoring and recovery orchestration regardless of source infrastructure.
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- Certified cloud engineers
Opsio is our partner for IT operations and cyber security – a crucial part of our business. We roast 12 million cups of coffee each day, and therefore have high demands for availability and reliability to deliver the best possible quality for our customers. Our partnership with Opsio is vital for us to succeed with this central function.
Magnus Norman
Head of IT · Löfbergs
Two enterprise security platforms. Included free.
Others pay a fortune for continuous vulnerability monitoring and a unified security-and-cost workspace — and then pay again for the people to run them. Every Opsio managed-cloud customer gets both, at no extra cost, with our engineers acting on what they surface.
SeqOps
Continuous vulnerability monitoring across your entire cloud & server estate — always on, never in the way.
- Every vulnerability, misconfiguration & exposure found continuously across AWS, Azure, GCP, Windows & Linux
- AI ranks findings by real risk, so effort goes where it matters
- Continuous compliance scoring: NIS2 · ISO 27001 · GDPR · PCI · HIPAA
- Read-only — collects security metadata, never your data
Opsio Shield
One intelligent workspace that unifies security posture, compliance scoring and cloud cost — so nothing hides between tools.
- Security posture, compliance score & multi-cloud spend on one live dashboard
- Cost anomalies & budget overruns caught before the invoice lands
- Auto-generated compliance evidence & vulnerability reports
- Encrypted secrets, mandatory MFA & row-level isolation by design
It's simply part of being an Opsio managed-cloud customer.
Survive Any Outage With Tested Azure Disaster Recovery
Azure Disaster Recovery as a Service is the Azure-specific implementation of DRaaS — built around Azure Site Recovery (ASR), Azure Backup, geo-redundant storage, and the Azure region-pair model. This page is deliberately distinct from our cross-cloud DR service at disaster recovery service provider, which orchestrates DR across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premises estates with vendor-neutral tooling. If your workloads run on Azure and you want native ASR plus Azure Backup operated for you, this is the right page. If you need DR across multiple clouds or want an alternative to ASR — for example, Zerto, Veeam, or Commvault — start with the cross-cloud sibling instead. Most disaster recovery plans are written once, filed away, and never tested. When an actual disaster strikes — datacenter failure, ransomware encryption, or an Azure regional outage — organisations discover that their replication was misconfigured, their recovery procedures are outdated, and their actual RTO is 10x longer than documented. The cost of this discovery is catastrophic: extended downtime averaging $5,600 per minute for enterprise systems, data loss, regulatory penalties under NIS2 and DORA, and customer trust that takes years to rebuild. The 2025 disaster-recovery research summarised in our cloud DR business case shows that organisations with quarterly-tested DR plans recover up to 8x faster from major incidents than those that rely on documentation alone.
Opsio's Azure DRaaS eliminates the gap between documented plans and actual capability. We deploy Azure Site Recovery for continuous replication of VMs, databases, and application tiers to a paired secondary Azure region — Sweden Central to West Europe, North Europe to West Europe, West US 2 to West Central US, or whichever Microsoft-defined region pair matches your data-residency obligations. Recovery plans are automated with sequenced failover steps, pre- and post-scripts that handle DNS updates and load-balancer reconfiguration, and manual approval gates for irreversible decisions. Most importantly, we test failover quarterly — actually executing the recovery plan in an isolated network sandbox to verify that applications come up correctly, data is consistent, dependency chains resolve, and recovery time meets your RTO targets. Test results are written up for compliance auditors and your business continuity steering committee, and the playbook is updated whenever the test reveals a gap.
Our DRaaS solution covers the full business continuity lifecycle: risk assessment and business impact analysis (BIA), RPO/RTO definition per application tier, replication architecture design, automated recovery plan implementation, regular testing, and ongoing monitoring of replication health under our broader Azure managed services umbrella. We support Azure-to-Azure DR, on-premises-to-Azure DR via the ASR Mobility Service agent, VMware-on-Azure DR with native vSphere replication into ASR, and hybrid scenarios coordinated through Azure migration service when DR is part of a broader move to Azure. Coverage extends to Azure SQL geo-replication, Cosmos DB multi-region writes, Azure Files cross-region snapshots, and the Azure Backup soft-delete and immutable-vault controls that defend against ransomware encryption of backups themselves. Every implementation is mapped to NIS2, DORA, and ISO 22301 business-continuity controls, with documented evidence packages suitable for regulator review and customer due-diligence questionnaires. See the broader treatment of cloud DR strategy in our disaster recovery in the cloud playbook for the strategic context behind these technical choices. Featured reading from our knowledge base: What Is Disaster Recovery in Cloud Computing?, What Is RTO and Why Is It Critical for Disaster Recovery?, and What Is RPO and Why Is It Critical for Disaster Recovery?.
How Opsio Compares
| DR capability on Azure | DIY Azure Site Recovery | Generic Azure MSP | Opsio Azure DRaaS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replication design and region-pair choice | Defaults accepted; region-pair often wrong for data residency | Replication enabled but region pair rarely justified against regulator constraints | Region-pair selected against data-residency obligations (NIS2/DORA/Schrems II), documented in BIA |
| RPO and RTO target setting | Generic targets adopted from documentation; never validated | Targets agreed in SOW; rarely tested against reality | Per-tier RPO and RTO derived from BIA, validated quarterly via test failover, RPO under 15 min for Tier 1 |
| Test failover cadence and rigour | Rare or never; recovery is unverified | Annual at best; partial scope; not sandboxed | Quarterly in isolated network sandbox with full application validation and auditor-grade report |
| Ransomware-resilient backups | Soft-delete sometimes enabled; multi-user authorisation rarely | Standard Azure Backup with default settings | Immutable vaults, multi-user authorisation, cross-region GRS, soft-delete extension, monitored for deletion attempts |
| Recovery plan automation | Scripts maintained ad-hoc; sequencing manual under pressure | Templates exist but lack dependency awareness | Sequenced ASR recovery plans with pre/post scripts for DNS, load balancer, and connection-string updates |
| Coverage of database and application tiers | VM-tier DR; database and app-config DR often missed | VMs only; databases handled as separate engagement | VM, Azure SQL geo-replication, Cosmos DB multi-region writes, Azure Files snapshots — unified DR posture |
| Regulatory and compliance alignment | NIS2/DORA/ISO 22301 mapped after the fact, if at all | Mapped in slides but rarely evidenced in operations | Controls mapped to NIS2, DORA, ISO 22301 from BIA onward; auditor-ready evidence pack maintained quarterly |
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Why Choose Opsio for Cloud Services
Tested, not theoretical
Quarterly failover tests prove your recovery capability works. Test results include actual RTO measurements, data integrity verification, and application validation.
Sub-1-hour RTO
Automated recovery plans with pre-configured failover sequences achieve sub-1-hour recovery for most workloads. No manual intervention required for standard scenarios.
SLA-backed recovery
Contractual RPO and RTO guarantees with financial penalties if targets are missed. Your DR capability is our responsibility.
Full lifecycle management
From BIA and risk assessment through replication configuration, testing, and ongoing monitoring — complete DR management, not just tool deployment.
Not sure yet? Start with a pilot.
Begin with a focused 2-week assessment. See real results before committing to a full engagement. If you proceed, the pilot cost is credited toward your project.
Our 4-Phase Delivery Process
Risk Assessment & BIA
Identify critical workloads, define RPO/RTO per application tier, and document business impact of downtime. Deliverable: business impact analysis. Timeline: 1-2 weeks.
DR Architecture Design
Design replication topology, select Azure regions, configure Site Recovery, and define recovery plan sequencing. Timeline: 1-2 weeks.
Implementation & Initial Test
Deploy replication, configure automated recovery plans, and execute initial failover test. Validate RTO, data integrity, and application functionality. Timeline: 2-3 weeks.
Ongoing DR Management
24/7 replication health monitoring, quarterly failover testing, recovery plan updates, and annual BIA refresh. Timeline: Ongoing.
Key Takeaways
- Azure Site Recovery
- Automated Recovery Plans
- Database DR
- DR Testing & Validation
- Hybrid & Multi-Cloud DR
Related Cloud Insights & Articles
Azure Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS): Architecture, RPO/RTO, and What It Actually Costs
Azure Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a managed offering layered on Azure Site Recovery (ASR), Azure Backup , and a tested operational runbook.
DRaaS Compared: AWS DRS, Azure Site Recovery, Zerto & Veeam
Choosing the wrong Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) platform can turn a theoretical 15-minute RTO into a multi-hour outage when it matters most.
Related Services
Azure Disaster Recovery as a Service — DRaaS — FAQ
What is Azure Disaster Recovery as a Service?
Azure DRaaS is a managed service that uses Azure Site Recovery and related tools to continuously replicate your workloads to a secondary Azure region and automatically failover during outages. Opsio manages the entire lifecycle: architecture design, replication configuration, automated recovery plans, quarterly testing, and 24/7 replication monitoring. The result is proven, tested disaster recovery capability with contractual RPO and RTO guarantees.
What RPO and RTO can Azure DRaaS achieve?
Azure Site Recovery provides application-consistent snapshots every 15 minutes (RPO) and crash-consistent snapshots every 5 minutes. Automated recovery plans achieve RTO of 15-60 minutes depending on workload complexity and dependency chain. Database-tier DR with Azure SQL geo-replication can achieve RPO of seconds. Opsio validates these targets through quarterly testing and adjusts configurations to meet your specific business continuity requirements.
How often should we test disaster recovery?
Opsio performs quarterly DR tests as standard — the minimum recommended frequency for regulated industries. Each test executes the full recovery plan in an isolated environment, validates application functionality, measures actual RTO, and documents results for auditors. For business-critical systems, we recommend monthly testing. Annual full-scale DR exercises involving business stakeholders supplement technical testing.
What does Azure DRaaS cost?
Azure Site Recovery costs approximately $25 per protected VM per month for replication. Secondary region compute costs apply only during failover or testing. Opsio's managed DRaaS service adds $2,000-$8,000 per month for architecture management, monitoring, quarterly testing, and SLA guarantees — depending on the number of protected workloads and complexity. Compared to building and maintaining DR infrastructure independently, DRaaS typically costs 40-60% less while delivering higher reliability.
Azure Site Recovery vs Azure Backup — when do we need which?
Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup solve different problems and most organisations need both. ASR provides continuous replication for fast failover — RPO under 15 minutes, RTO under one hour for Tier-1 workloads — and is the right tool when downtime is the primary risk. Azure Backup provides point-in-time copies for restore — recovering from data corruption, accidental deletion, or ransomware that has been replicated by ASR before detection. Backup retention runs days to years; ASR replication keeps a rolling window of minutes to days. Opsio configures both together: ASR for failover, Backup for restore points, with immutable-vault controls to defend the backups themselves.
What RPO and RTO can Azure DRaaS achieve in practice?
For typical IaaS workloads, ASR delivers application-consistent recovery points every 15 minutes (RPO 15 min) and crash-consistent points every 5 minutes (RPO 5 min). Test failovers in our environments consistently achieve RTO between 15 and 60 minutes for single-tier applications, and 1-4 hours for complex multi-tier applications with database dependency chains. For database tiers, Azure SQL geo-replication and Cosmos DB multi-region writes can deliver RPO of seconds and RTO of minutes when configured for active-active patterns. The realistic floor is set by your application's startup time, dependency chain, and connection-string switching logic — all of which we measure during the initial test failover.
How do you select the secondary Azure region pair?
Microsoft publishes recommended Azure region pairs — for example, Sweden Central pairs with West Europe, North Europe with West Europe, East US with West US — that share update isolation and have prioritised recovery. We select the pair against your data-residency obligations first (GDPR data-transfer restrictions, NIS2 sovereign-data requirements, DORA financial-sector rules), latency tolerance second, and cost third. For Nordic customers under Swedish data residency, Sweden Central plus West Europe is the standard pair. For DACH customers, Germany West Central plus North Europe. The pair is documented in the BIA and reviewed annually.
How often do you test failover, and what counts as a real test?
We test quarterly as standard, which exceeds the minimum recommended for most regulated industries. A real test executes the recovery plan in an isolated network sandbox (so production keeps replicating uninterrupted), spins up the secondary VMs, runs application-layer health checks, validates database consistency, measures actual RTO against the documented target, and produces a written report including timestamps, screenshots, and any deviations from the plan. We do not count read-only ASR dashboard checks as tests. For Tier-1 workloads in regulated industries we recommend monthly drills supplemented by an annual full-stack DR exercise that involves business stakeholders, not only engineers.
How fast can recovery actually complete during a live incident?
Live-incident recovery time depends on what failed and how quickly the failover decision is made. Automated recovery plans for single-tier IaaS workloads typically complete within 30 minutes once invoked. Multi-tier workloads with database dependency chains take 1-3 hours including data-consistency verification. The variable that dominates real RTO is decision time — how fast the on-call team confirms the incident is significant enough to declare a disaster and authorise failover. We document the decision authority in the BIA and run tabletop exercises so the decision is rehearsed, not improvised under pressure.
Still have questions? Our team is ready to help.
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Azure Disaster Recovery as a Service — DRaaS
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