On-prem Disaster Recovery

Establishing Enterprise-Grade Business Continuity for 8 Million Users

In May 2024, our organization embarked on a critical mission to eliminate the single point of failure threatening our mission-critical customer data systems serving 8 million active users. With no disaster recovery capabilities in place, we faced significant risks from power outages, infrastructure failures, and regulatory non-compliance in Uzbekistan's fintech sector.

The project objectives were threefold: First, achieve 99.9% service availability through a robust disaster recovery infrastructure. Second, protect hundreds of terabytes of mission-critical customer data with sub-4-hour recovery time objective (RTO). Third, ensure compliance with Uzbekistan's regulatory requirements mandating data sovereignty and security controls for financial institutions.

To accomplish this, we executed a comprehensive infrastructure transformation - building our own primary datacenter, relocating existing production systems from third-party premises to establish full operational control, and implementing a geographically separated DR site over 10 kilometers away with database-level replication. This 15-month initiative transformed our business continuity posture from vulnerable to resilient, delivering management confidence and regulatory compliance.

Measurable Business and Technical Outcomes

The project delivered transformative results across multiple dimensions:

Availability and Resilience: Achieved 99.9% availability target for mission-critical customer data systems serving 8 million users. Eliminated single point of failure that previously threatened business continuity, with sub-4-hour recovery time objective (RTO) validated through architectural design and capacity planning.

Regulatory Compliance: Achieved full compliance with Uzbekistan's banking sector regulations regarding data sovereignty, security controls, and business continuity requirements. Positioned the organization to meet evolving regulatory standards for financial services resilience.

Infrastructure Ownership: Successfully built and operationalized our own primary datacenter facility, migrated production systems from third-party premises with zero service disruption, and established geographically separated DR site protecting hundreds of terabytes of data.

Organizational Capability: Developed in-house expertise in enterprise disaster recovery architecture, database replication technologies, and datacenter operations - eliminating dependency on external cloud providers and building sustainable institutional knowledge.

Strategic Foundation: Created infrastructure platform supporting future growth and Phase 2 evolution toward active-active architecture. Delivered measurable management confidence in business continuity capabilities and competitive differentiation in the market.

Postgres DBs and native replication, Lenovo based servers

Complex Technical and Organizational Challenges Overcome

This project presented exceptional implementation complexity across multiple fronts:

Infrastructure Construction Challenge: Building enterprise-grade datacenter facilities in Uzbekistan required navigating local construction standards, power infrastructure limitations, and cooling system design for high-density computing environments. We engineered solutions for reliable power delivery and established physical security controls meeting financial sector requirements.

Zero-Downtime Migration Complexity: Relocating production systems serving 8 million active users from third-party facilities to our new primary site demanded meticulous planning and execution. We developed detailed migration runbooks, conducted extensive testing, coordinated with application teams, and executed phased cutover procedures that maintained continuous service availability throughout the transition.

Skills Development: Our team mastered complex technologies typically delegated to cloud providers - storage architecture, network design, replication mechanisms, and disaster recovery procedures. This knowledge transfer ensured sustainable long-term operational capability without external dependency.

From Vulnerability to Resilience: Building Enterprise Business Continuity Infrastructure

In May 2024, our organization faced a critical strategic challenge: 8 million active users relied on mission-critical customer data systems with zero disaster recovery protection. A single infrastructure failure, power outage, or natural disaster could result in catastrophic service disruption, regulatory penalties, and irreparable damage to customer trust in Uzbekistan's competitive fintech landscape.

Strategic Context and Decision

While cloud-based DR solutions offered apparent simplicity, Uzbekistan's regulatory framework for financial institutions mandates strict data sovereignty controls, prohibiting customer data storage in foreign cloud environments. Rather than accepting reduced capabilities, we committed to building enterprise-grade on-premise disaster recovery infrastructure that would match cloud-level performance while maintaining complete data control.

Comprehensive Infrastructure Transformation

The project scope extended far beyond typical DR implementations. We executed three parallel initiatives: First, we designed and built a new primary datacenter facility with enterprise-grade power, cooling, and security systems. Second, we orchestrated a complex migration of production systems from third-party colocation facilities to our new primary site, achieving zero downtime during the transition. Third, we established a geographically separated DR site over 10 kilometers away, implementing database-level replication for hundreds of terabytes of mission-critical data.

Technical Architecture

We implemented an active-passive disaster recovery architecture with database-level replication technology. The primary and DR sites maintain continuous data synchronization, with the DR site capable of assuming production workloads within our sub-4-hour RTO target. The geographic separation exceeds industry best practices for disaster recovery, ensuring protection against localized incidents while maintaining network performance for replication.

The technical complexity included integrating replication mechanisms with existing customer data systems, designing automated monitoring and alerting frameworks, establishing secure network connectivity between sites, and developing operational procedures for failover scenarios. Every component was selected, configured, and optimized by our in-house technical team.

Organizational Impact

This project fundamentally transformed our operational risk profile. Management gained confidence in our ability to maintain service continuity under adverse conditions. Our regulatory compliance posture strengthened significantly, meeting Central Bank requirements for business continuity in financial services. The infrastructure foundation supports our strategic roadmap, with Phase 2 planning already underway to evolve toward active-active architecture for even higher availability.

Industry Leadership

In an industry increasingly dependent on cloud providers, this project demonstrates that technical excellence and infrastructure ownership remain viable and superior strategies for regulated sectors. We built institutional knowledge, developed in-house expertise, and created infrastructure that we fully control - capabilities that will serve the organization for years to come.

National Infrastructure Serving Uzbekistan's Digital Economy

Primary Service Coverage: The disaster recovery infrastructure protects mission-critical systems serving 8 million active users throughout Uzbekistan. Our customer base spans all regions of the country, from Tashkent to regional centers, relying on continuous availability of financial services for daily transactions, account management, and digital fintech operations.

Physical Infrastructure Distribution: The project encompasses two geographically separated sites within Tashkent, exceeding 10 kilometers distance to ensure protection against localized disasters while maintaining network performance for real-time data replication. Our primary datacenter and disaster recovery site form a resilient infrastructure foundation for national-scale financial services delivery.

Regulatory Jurisdiction: As a financial services provider operating under Uzbekistan's regulatory framework, maintaining data sovereignty within national borders is mandatory. Our on-premise infrastructure ensures all customer data remains within Uzbekistan's jurisdiction, meeting Central Bank requirements and supporting the country's digital economy development goals.

Strategic National Impact: This project contributes to Uzbekistan's financial sector resilience and digital transformation objectives. By demonstrating that world-class disaster recovery capabilities can be built domestically without foreign cloud dependency, we advance the national agenda for technology sovereignty and infrastructure independence in critical sectors.