Enabling Business Continuity with Disaster Recovery Implementation

Business Opportunity

Disaster Recovery for Loan Origination System

The client is a microfinance institution established in 2008, focused on empowering underserved women in rural and semi-urban areas of India. With a robust network of over 1,645 branches spread across 22 states and 1 union territory, the organization serves more than 3 million customers. As of March 2024, it manages assets worth approximately $1,705.35 million, dedicated to promoting financial inclusion and supporting women’s economic independence and entrepreneurial ventures.

The client operates in the highly regulated BFSI sector, and they were looking for robust business continuity measures to ensure service reliability and regulatory compliance. Given the criticality of their Loan Origination System (LOS) application built by Niveus, any disruption in services could impact customer trust and regulatory standing. To mitigate these risks and comply with RBI mandates, the client was looking for a Disaster Recovery (DR) solution tailored to their operational and regulatory needs.

Niveus Solutions proposed and implemented a DR strategy hosted on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The solution involved setting up a DR environment in Delhi with a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 1 hour and a near real-time Recovery Point Objective (RPO). This ensured that, in the event of a disaster affecting the primary Mumbai GCP region, the LOS application and infrastructure could be restored efficiently, maintaining service continuity and meeting compliance standards.

The Challenge

Regulatory Compliance Pressure: The client needed to adhere to stringent RBI guidelines for disaster recovery and business continuity. Non-compliance posed risks of penalties and operational restrictions, making it imperative to establish a DR strategy that met these regulatory standards.

Minimizing Downtime and Data Loss: Ensuring minimal downtime and achieving a near real-time data replication (RPO) was critical for their LOS application. The client faced challenges in maintaining continuous service availability across geographically distributed users in the event of infrastructure failures or disasters.

Cost-Effective DR Implementation on Cloud: Designing a DR solution that balanced compliance, performance, and cost was a significant challenge. The client sought a DR setup on GCP that could deliver high availability and quick recovery without escalating operational expenses.

Our Solution

To address the client’s need for a robust Disaster Recovery (DR) solution, Niveus designed and implemented a DR setup for their Loan Origination System (LOS) application, currently hosted on the Mumbai Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This solution was created to restore access and functionality to the GCP infrastructure in the event of a disaster, whether caused by natural factors or human error, while ensuring full compliance with regulatory requirements.

The Disaster Recovery (DR) implementation was carried out in three key phases

Pre-DR Setup: We established the complete DR infrastructure and developed a comprehensive DR runbook to guide future failover activities. Automation was implemented for seamless switching to the backup environment. Monitoring was enabled for key production resources, with drift detection mechanisms such as image mismatch alerts to maintain configuration consistency between production and DR.

DR Implementation: Niveus conducted an extensive DR drill to validate system readiness. The drill involved testing each component in isolation to ensure independent functionality, followed by an integrated failover test. All dependencies were mapped clearly, manual intervention was minimized, and the architecture was designed to account for network, security, backup, and monitoring, which helped achieve the target RTO and RPO.

Post-DR Activities: Following the drill, we provided full documentation along with a consolidated DR report containing logs and evidence of each task. This reporting is critical for audit and compliance. The client chose to have future DR drills handled by the Niveus team through a Change Request (CR) process, demonstrating their continued confidence in our execution.

DR Infrastructure Highlights:

• The DR environment was provisioned in GCP’s Delhi region by extending the client’s existing landing zone and production VPC setup
• Lightweight versions of three key GKE clusters (Kong, App, and Temporal Layer) were deployed to balance cost and readiness
• Cloud SQL read replica was configured with minimal capacity, and Redis was hosted on the Bastion VM
• Two multi-regional Cloud Storage buckets in Asia were used for reliable data availability
• Global Load Balancer was configured to retain the same domain name, with backend switching during disaster scenarios

The overall architecture ensured parity with production, supported seamless failover during the drill, and allowed for easy rollback after testing. Thorough testing, real-time monitoring, detailed reporting, and robust automation delivered a compliant, efficient, and scalable DR setup tailored to the client’s operational and regulatory needs.

Results

• RTO and RPO Targets Achieved: Met 1-hour RTO and near real-time RPO in line with audit and regulatory requirements.
• Cost-Optimized DR Operations:  Maintained 50% DR capacity under normal conditions, scaling to 100% during disasters
• Automation for DR Drill Implemented: Developed scripts for pre-rollback, post-rollback, and rollback automation, saving time and effort
• Enhanced Efficiency with Automation: Applied Niveus automation expertise to streamline DR drills and reduce errors
• One-Time DR Drill Executed: Conducted a successful DR drill to test failover and recovery
• Comprehensive DR Runbook Created: Documented all disaster recovery procedures for client teams

Power of Partnership

Niveus worked in close collaboration with the client’s IT and compliance teams to deliver a disaster recovery solution that fully aligned with regulatory requirements. We provided comprehensive support across the entire lifecycle, from infrastructure setup and application deployment to automating the DR drill process. Leveraging our deep expertise in cloud technologies and automation, we helped the client establish a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective DR strategy. Additionally, we equipped the client’s teams with detailed documentation, runbooks, and automation scripts to simplify ongoing management and ensure audit readiness. This partnership has significantly enhanced the client’s business continuity posture and operational resilience.

Benefits of Disaster Recovery with Niveus

• Regulatory Compliance Expertise: Niveus ensures DR solutions meet industry-specific compliance and audit requirements, minimizing regulatory risks. 
• Customized, Scalable Solutions: We design DR strategies tailored to business needs, with infrastructure that scales efficiently during disaster scenarios. 
• Automation-Driven Efficiency: Our automation capabilities streamline DR drills and reduce manual errors, enabling faster recovery with less operational overhead. 
• Cost-Optimized Deployments: We implement DR environments that balance performance and cost, running efficiently during normal operations at 50% and scaling to 100% when needed. 
• End-to-End Support and Enablement: From setup to documentation and handover, Niveus provides complete support, empowering client teams for ongoing management and future readiness.