Evaluating Azure Site Recovery for Disaster Recovery

Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is a cloud-based disaster recovery solution that enables organizations to maintain business continuity by automating data replication, failover, and failback processes. This paper comprehensively evaluates the effectiveness of ASR in achieving critical disaster recovery objectives, particularly Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO), through real-world simulations involving Linux-based virtual machines deployed in Azure environments. The experimental setup included multiple failover and failback scenarios with varying workloads, monitored using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics. Findings reveal that ASR consistently delivers RTOs below 30 seconds and RPOs within five minutes, indicating strong performance in minimizing downtime and data loss. Key operations such as Finalize Protection and Unplanned Failover showed high reliability, with success rates above 95 %. The study also discusses potential optimization areas in large-scale data replication and Azure-native failover strategies. This evaluation provides practical insights and evidence-based recommendations for organizations seeking scalable and efficient cloud-based disaster recovery solutions.