AI-Powered Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery isn’t just about backups—it’s about ensuring business continuity when the unexpected happens. AI transforms DR from reactive firefighting to proactive resilience planning, automating recovery procedures while learning from each incident.

Business Continuity Framework

The Three Pillars of AI-Enhanced DR

🛡️ Prevention

Proactive monitoring and risk assessment to prevent disasters before they occur.

🔄 Recovery

Automated recovery procedures with intelligent decision-making for minimal downtime.

📊 Learning

Post-incident analysis to improve resilience and prevent future occurrences.

Defining Recovery Objectives

RTO and RPO Strategy

interface RecoveryObjectives {
  // Recovery Time Objective - How long until service is restored
  rto: {
    critical: '15 minutes',      // Payment processing, auth
    high: '1 hour',              // Core business features
    medium: '4 hours',           // Secondary features
    low: '24 hours'              // Nice-to-have features
  };

  // Recovery Point Objective - Maximum acceptable data loss
  rpo: {
    critical: '0 seconds',       // No data loss (sync replication)
    high: '5 minutes',           // Near real-time backup
    medium: '1 hour',            // Hourly snapshots
    low: '24 hours'              // Daily backups
  };
}

// AI helps classify and optimize
class DRPlanner {
  async analyzeService(service: ServiceConfig) {
    // AI analyzes service dependencies and usage
    const classification = await this.aiClassify(service);

    // Generate optimal backup strategy
    return {
      tier: classification.tier,
      backupStrategy: this.getStrategy(classification),
      dependencies: await this.traceDependencies(service),
      testSchedule: this.generateTestSchedule(classification)
    };
  }
}

Tip

AI can analyze your actual usage patterns and business impact to suggest appropriate RTO/RPO targets, often finding opportunities to improve resilience without increasing costs.

Intelligent Backup Strategies

Multi-Tier Backup Architecture

Database Backups

-- AI-generated backup strategy for PostgreSQL
-- Continuous archiving + Point-in-time recovery

-- 1. Enable WAL archiving
ALTER SYSTEM SET wal_level = 'replica';
ALTER SYSTEM SET archive_mode = 'on';
ALTER SYSTEM SET archive_command = 'aws s3 cp %p s3://backup-bucket/wal/%f';

-- 2. Automated backup script
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION automated_backup()
RETURNS void AS $$
DECLARE
    backup_id text;
    start_time timestamp;
BEGIN
    backup_id := 'backup_' || to_char(now(), 'YYYYMMDD_HH24MISS');
    start_time := clock_timestamp();

    -- Notify monitoring
    PERFORM pg_notify('backup_status',
        json_build_object(
            'status', 'started',
            'backup_id', backup_id,
            'type', 'full'
        )::text
    );

    -- Perform backup
    PERFORM pg_backup_start(backup_id);

    -- AI monitors for anomalies during backup
    IF (SELECT count(*) FROM pg_stat_activity
        WHERE state = 'active' AND query_start < now() - interval '1 hour') > 0
    THEN
        PERFORM pg_notify('backup_alert', 'Long-running queries detected');
    END IF;

    -- Complete backup
    PERFORM pg_backup_stop();

    -- Log metrics
    INSERT INTO backup_history (id, duration, size, status)
    VALUES (
        backup_id,
        clock_timestamp() - start_time,
        pg_database_size(current_database()),
        'completed'
    );
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

-- 3. Schedule automated backups
SELECT cron.schedule('full-backup', '0 2 * * *', 'SELECT automated_backup()');
SELECT cron.schedule('incremental', '*/15 * * * *', 'SELECT incremental_backup()');

Application State

// AI-driven application state backup
class IntelligentBackupService {
  private readonly strategies = {
    redis: new RedisBackupStrategy(),
    filesystem: new FilesystemBackupStrategy(),
    objectStorage: new S3BackupStrategy(),
    database: new DatabaseBackupStrategy()
  };

  async performBackup(config: BackupConfig) {
    const metrics = await this.collectMetrics();

    // AI determines what needs backing up
    const backupPlan = await this.generateBackupPlan(metrics);

    // Execute in parallel where possible
    const results = await Promise.allSettled(
      backupPlan.tasks.map(task => this.executeTask(task))
    );

    // Verify backup integrity
    await this.verifyBackups(results);

    // Update disaster recovery readiness
    await this.updateDRStatus({
      lastBackup: new Date(),
      dataPoints: results.filter(r => r.status === 'fulfilled').length,
      estimatedRecoveryTime: this.calculateRTO(results)
    });
  }

  private async generateBackupPlan(metrics: SystemMetrics) {
    // AI analyzes system state
    const analysis = await this.aiAnalyze({
      metrics,
      changeRate: await this.getDataChangeRate(),
      lastIncident: await this.getLastIncident(),
      currentLoad: metrics.systemLoad
    });

    return {
      tasks: [
        // Critical: Real-time replication
        ...(analysis.criticalData.map(d => ({
          type: 'stream',
          source: d.source,
          destination: d.replicaDestination,
          priority: 'critical'
        }))),

        // High: Frequent snapshots
        ...(analysis.highPriorityData.map(d => ({
          type: 'snapshot',
          source: d.source,
          destination: d.snapshotDestination,
          frequency: '5m',
          retention: '7d'
        }))),

        // Medium: Standard backups
        ...(analysis.standardData.map(d => ({
          type: 'backup',
          source: d.source,
          destination: d.backupDestination,
          compression: true,
          encryption: true
        })))
      ]
    };
  }
}

Infrastructure as Code

terraform/disaster-recovery/main.tf

# AI-generated disaster recovery infrastructure
terraform {
  backend "s3" {
    bucket = "terraform-state-dr"
    key    = "disaster-recovery/terraform.tfstate"
    region = "us-west-2"  # Different region from primary

    # Enable versioning for state rollback
    versioning = true

    # Encrypt state at rest
    encrypt = true
  }
}

# Multi-region backup configuration
module "cross_region_backup" {
  source = "./modules/backup"

  regions = {
    primary   = "us-east-1"
    secondary = "us-west-2"
    tertiary  = "eu-west-1"  # Geographic distribution
  }

  backup_policies = {
    databases = {
      schedule = "cron(0 */6 * * ? *)"  # Every 6 hours
      retention_days = 30
      cross_region_copy = true
      lifecycle_rules = {
        transition_to_glacier = 7
        expire = 90
      }
    }

    application_data = {
      continuous = true  # Real-time replication
      point_in_time_recovery = true
      retention_days = 7
    }
  }
}

# Automated failover configuration
resource "aws_route53_health_check" "primary" {
  fqdn              = var.primary_endpoint
  port              = 443
  type              = "HTTPS"
  resource_path     = "/health"
  failure_threshold = 2
  request_interval  = 10
}

resource "aws_route53_record" "failover_primary" {
  zone_id = var.hosted_zone_id
  name    = var.domain_name
  type    = "A"

  set_identifier = "primary"
  failover_routing_policy {
    type = "PRIMARY"
  }

  alias {
    name                   = var.primary_lb_dns
    zone_id                = var.primary_lb_zone_id
    evaluate_target_health = true
  }

  health_check_id = aws_route53_health_check.primary.id
}

Automated Recovery Procedures

Intelligent Incident Response

1. Detection - AI monitors for anomalies and failures
2. Assessment - Automatic impact analysis and classification
3. Decision - AI determines optimal recovery strategy
4. Execution - Automated recovery with human oversight
5. Verification - Ensure services are fully restored
6. Learning - Post-incident analysis for improvement

Recovery Automation Framework

// AI-powered disaster recovery orchestrator
class DisasterRecoveryOrchestrator {
  private readonly strategies: Map<IncidentType, RecoveryStrategy> = new Map([
    ['database_failure', new DatabaseRecoveryStrategy()],
    ['service_outage', new ServiceRecoveryStrategy()],
    ['data_corruption', new DataRecoveryStrategy()],
    ['security_breach', new SecurityRecoveryStrategy()],
    ['regional_failure', new RegionalFailoverStrategy()]
  ]);

  async handleIncident(alert: IncidentAlert) {
    const incident = await this.classifyIncident(alert);

    // Create recovery plan
    const plan = await this.createRecoveryPlan(incident);

    // Get human approval for critical decisions
    if (incident.severity === 'critical') {
      await this.requestApproval(plan);
    }

    // Execute recovery
    const recovery = await this.executeRecovery(plan);

    // Monitor and adjust
    await this.monitorRecovery(recovery);

    // Generate post-mortem
    await this.generatePostMortem(incident, recovery);
  }

  private async createRecoveryPlan(incident: Incident): Promise<RecoveryPlan> {
    // AI analyzes the incident
    const analysis = await this.aiAnalyze({
      incident,
      systemState: await this.getSystemState(),
      availableBackups: await this.getBackupInventory(),
      dependencies: await this.getDependencyGraph()
    });

    return {
      steps: [
        // 1. Isolate affected systems
        {
          action: 'isolate',
          targets: analysis.affectedSystems,
          priority: 1,
          automated: true
        },

        // 2. Activate DR environment
        {
          action: 'activate_dr',
          environment: analysis.optimalDRSite,
          priority: 2,
          requiresApproval: incident.severity === 'critical'
        },

        // 3. Restore data
        {
          action: 'restore',
          source: analysis.bestBackupSource,
          targetTime: analysis.optimalRecoveryPoint,
          priority: 3,
          parallel: true
        },

        // 4. Verify integrity
        {
          action: 'verify',
          checks: analysis.integrityChecks,
          priority: 4,
          automated: true
        },

        // 5. Switch traffic
        {
          action: 'failover',
          method: analysis.failoverStrategy,
          priority: 5,
          canary: true  // Gradual failover
        }
      ],

      estimatedDuration: analysis.estimatedRTO,
      rollbackPlan: this.generateRollbackPlan(analysis),
      communicationPlan: this.generateCommsPlan(incident)
    };
  }
}

Caution

Always maintain human oversight for critical recovery decisions. AI should augment, not replace, human judgment in disaster scenarios.

Database Recovery Strategies

Point-in-Time Recovery

-- AI-assisted PostgreSQL PITR recovery
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION intelligent_pitr_recovery(
    target_time timestamp,
    recovery_reason text
) RETURNS TABLE (
    recovery_point timestamp,
    data_loss_estimate text,
    affected_transactions bigint,
    recovery_script text
) AS $$
DECLARE
    closest_backup timestamp;
    wal_available boolean;
BEGIN
    -- Find optimal recovery point
    SELECT MAX(backup_time) INTO closest_backup
    FROM backup_history
    WHERE backup_time <= target_time
      AND status = 'completed';

    -- Check WAL availability
    wal_available := verify_wal_chain(closest_backup, target_time);

    -- AI suggests recovery approach
    IF NOT wal_available THEN
        -- Find alternative recovery point
        SELECT MAX(backup_time) INTO closest_backup
        FROM backup_history
        WHERE backup_time <= target_time
          AND status = 'completed'
          AND verify_wal_chain(backup_time, target_time);
    END IF;

    RETURN QUERY
    SELECT
        closest_backup as recovery_point,
        age(target_time, closest_backup)::text as data_loss_estimate,
        COUNT(DISTINCT xid) as affected_transactions,
        generate_recovery_script(
            closest_backup,
            target_time,
            recovery_reason
        ) as recovery_script
    FROM pg_xact_commit_timestamp
    WHERE timestamp BETWEEN closest_backup AND target_time;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

-- Recovery execution with monitoring
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION execute_recovery(
    recovery_script text
) RETURNS void AS $$
BEGIN
    -- Notify monitoring systems
    PERFORM pg_notify('dr_event', json_build_object(
        'event', 'recovery_started',
        'timestamp', now(),
        'script', recovery_script
    )::text);

    -- Execute recovery
    EXECUTE recovery_script;

    -- Verify recovery
    IF NOT verify_database_integrity() THEN
        RAISE EXCEPTION 'Recovery verification failed';
    END IF;

    -- Update DR status
    UPDATE dr_status
    SET last_recovery = now(),
        recovery_successful = true
    WHERE active = true;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Cross-Region Replication

// Intelligent cross-region failover
class CrossRegionFailover {
  private regions = [
    { id: 'us-east-1', priority: 1, health: 'healthy' },
    { id: 'us-west-2', priority: 2, health: 'healthy' },
    { id: 'eu-west-1', priority: 3, health: 'healthy' }
  ];

  async executeFailover(failedRegion: string) {
    // Update region health
    this.updateRegionHealth(failedRegion, 'failed');

    // Select target region
    const targetRegion = await this.selectTargetRegion({
      exclude: [failedRegion],
      criteria: {
        latency: await this.measureLatencies(),
        capacity: await this.checkCapacities(),
        dataFreshness: await this.checkReplicationLag()
      }
    });

    // Pre-flight checks
    const checks = await this.runPreFlightChecks(targetRegion);
    if (!checks.passed) {
      throw new Error(`Pre-flight checks failed: ${checks.failures}`);
    }

    // Execute failover
    await this.performFailover({
      from: failedRegion,
      to: targetRegion,
      steps: [
        // Stop writes to failed region
        { action: 'disable_writes', region: failedRegion },

        // Ensure replication is caught up
        { action: 'wait_replication', maxLag: '5s' },

        // Promote standby
        { action: 'promote_standby', region: targetRegion },

        // Update DNS
        { action: 'update_dns', target: targetRegion },

        // Verify health
        { action: 'health_check', timeout: '30s' }
      ]
    });

    // Monitor new primary
    await this.monitorFailover(targetRegion);
  }
}

Disaster Recovery Testing

Automated DR Drills

1. Schedule regular tests - Weekly for critical systems, monthly for others
2. Create realistic scenarios - AI generates failure scenarios based on historical incidents
3. Execute in isolation - Test in DR environment without affecting production
4. Measure recovery metrics - Track RTO/RPO achievement
5. Document gaps - AI identifies areas for improvement
6. Update procedures - Incorporate lessons learned

Chaos Engineering for DR

# AI-generated chaos experiments for DR testing
apiVersion: chaos-mesh.org/v1alpha1
kind: Schedule
metadata:
  name: dr-readiness-test
spec:
  schedule: "0 3 * * 6"  # Weekly on Saturday 3 AM
  type: "Workflow"
  historyLimit: 5
  workflow:
    entry: "dr-test-sequence"
    templates:
      - name: "dr-test-sequence"
        templateType: Serial
        deadline: 4h
        children:
          # Test 1: Database failure
          - name: "database-failure"
            templateType: PodChaos
            deadline: 30m
            podChaos:
              action: pod-kill
              mode: one
              selector:
                labelSelectors:
                  app: "postgresql-primary"

          # Test 2: Network partition
          - name: "network-partition"
            templateType: NetworkChaos
            deadline: 30m
            networkChaos:
              action: partition
              mode: all
              selector:
                labelSelectors:
                  region: "us-east-1"
              direction: both

          # Test 3: Regional outage
          - name: "regional-outage"
            templateType: MultiChaos
            deadline: 1h
            children:
              - podChaos:
                  action: pod-kill
                  mode: all
                  selector:
                    labelSelectors:
                      region: "us-east-1"
              - networkChaos:
                  action: loss
                  mode: all
                  selector:
                    labelSelectors:
                      region: "us-east-1"
                  loss: "100"

Recovery Validation

// AI-powered recovery validation
class RecoveryValidator {
  async validateRecovery(recovery: RecoveryExecution) {
    const validations = {
      dataIntegrity: await this.checkDataIntegrity(),
      serviceHealth: await this.checkServiceHealth(),
      performanceBaseline: await this.checkPerformance(),
      securityPosture: await this.checkSecurity()
    };

    // AI analyzes validation results
    const analysis = await this.aiAnalyze({
      validations,
      expectedState: recovery.targetState,
      actualState: await this.captureSystemState()
    });

    if (analysis.anomalies.length > 0) {
      // AI suggests remediation
      const remediation = await this.generateRemediation(
        analysis.anomalies
      );

      await this.notifyOps({
        status: 'partial_recovery',
        anomalies: analysis.anomalies,
        suggestedActions: remediation
      });
    }

    return {
      status: analysis.overallStatus,
      report: this.generateReport(validations, analysis),
      metrics: {
        actualRTO: recovery.duration,
        dataLoss: analysis.dataLossAssessment,
        serviceAvailability: analysis.availability
      }
    };
  }
}

Real-World Disaster Scenarios

Scenario: Complete Data Center Failure

// Response to catastrophic data center loss
async function handleDataCenterFailure(incident: DataCenterIncident) {
  const dr = new DisasterRecoveryOrchestrator();

  // Phase 1: Immediate response (0-15 minutes)
  await dr.execute({
    phase: 'immediate',
    actions: [
      // Activate incident command
      {
        type: 'notify',
        targets: ['oncall', 'leadership', 'stakeholders'],
        severity: 'critical'
      },

      // Fail over critical services
      {
        type: 'failover',
        services: ['auth', 'payments', 'core-api'],
        target: 'dr-site-1',
        method: 'dns-failover'
      },

      // Enable read-only mode
      {
        type: 'degrade-gracefully',
        mode: 'read-only',
        services: ['*']
      }
    ]
  });

  // Phase 2: Service restoration (15-60 minutes)
  await dr.execute({
    phase: 'restoration',
    actions: [
      // Restore from backups
      {
        type: 'restore-data',
        source: 'cross-region-backups',
        target: 'dr-site-1',
        priority: ['user-data', 'transactions', 'analytics']
      },

      // Scale DR infrastructure
      {
        type: 'auto-scale',
        target: '200%',  // Handle full production load
        services: ['web', 'api', 'workers']
      },

      // Verify data consistency
      {
        type: 'consistency-check',
        method: 'ai-assisted',
        acceptableRPO: '5 minutes'
      }
    ]
  });

  // Phase 3: Full recovery (1-4 hours)
  await dr.execute({
    phase: 'full-recovery',
    actions: [
      // Restore full functionality
      {
        type: 'enable-writes',
        services: ['*'],
        validation: 'required'
      },

      // Performance optimization
      {
        type: 'optimize',
        targets: ['cache-warming', 'connection-pools', 'cdn']
      },

      // Customer communication
      {
        type: 'communicate',
        channels: ['status-page', 'email', 'social'],
        message: await dr.generateCustomerUpdate(incident)
      }
    ]
  });
}

Scenario: Ransomware Attack

# AI-generated ransomware recovery playbook
#!/bin/bash

# 1. Isolate affected systems
claude --no-interactive "Generate network isolation rules for compromised segments"

# 2. Assess damage
claude "Analyze backup integrity and find last clean backup before encryption"

# 3. Recovery plan
claude "Create recovery plan prioritizing:
- Critical business services
- Customer data
- Financial systems
- Internal tools
Include time estimates and dependency order"

# 4. Execute recovery
claude "Execute recovery with:
- Parallel restoration where possible
- Integrity verification at each step
- Progress monitoring and reporting"

# 5. Strengthen defenses
claude "Analyze attack vector and suggest security improvements"

Continuous Improvement

Post-Incident Learning

// AI-powered post-mortem generation
class PostMortemAnalyzer {
  async generatePostMortem(incident: Incident, recovery: Recovery) {
    const analysis = await this.comprehensiveAnalysis({
      incident,
      recovery,
      logs: await this.collectLogs(incident.timeframe),
      metrics: await this.collectMetrics(incident.timeframe),
      decisions: await this.extractDecisions(recovery)
    });

    return {
      executive_summary: analysis.summary,
      timeline: analysis.timeline,
      root_cause: analysis.rootCause,
      impact: {
        customers_affected: analysis.customerImpact,
        data_loss: analysis.dataLoss,
        revenue_impact: analysis.revenueImpact,
        reputation_impact: analysis.reputationScore
      },
      what_went_well: analysis.positives,
      what_went_wrong: analysis.negatives,
      action_items: analysis.improvements.map(imp => ({
        description: imp.description,
        owner: imp.suggestedOwner,
        priority: imp.priority,
        due_date: imp.estimatedCompletion
      })),
      prevention: {
        technical: analysis.technicalPrevention,
        process: analysis.processPrevention,
        training: analysis.trainingNeeds
      }
    };
  }
}

Best Practices Summary

🎯 Test Regularly

Weekly tests for critical systems, monthly for all others. Automate testing to ensure consistency.

📊 Monitor Everything

Track backup success, replication lag, and recovery readiness continuously.

🤖 Automate Wisely

Automate detection and initial response, but maintain human oversight for critical decisions.

📚 Document Everything

AI can help maintain up-to-date runbooks that evolve with your infrastructure.

DR Readiness Checklist

## Daily Checks (Automated)
- [ ] Backup completion status
- [ ] Replication lag < 5 seconds
- [ ] DR site health checks passing
- [ ] Critical service redundancy active

## Weekly Tasks
- [ ] Test failover for one service
- [ ] Review backup integrity reports
- [ ] Update recovery documentation
- [ ] Verify contact lists current

## Monthly Reviews
- [ ] Full DR drill execution
- [ ] RTO/RPO measurement
- [ ] Cost optimization review
- [ ] Training and knowledge transfer

## Quarterly Planning
- [ ] Update risk assessments
- [ ] Review and update DR strategy
- [ ] Vendor and tool evaluation
- [ ] Budget and resource planning

Related Resources

• Security Compliance - Security-focused recovery planning
• Performance Testing - Stress testing DR systems
• Monitoring & Observability - Early warning systems
• Infrastructure as Code - Reproducible infrastructure