💥 Automating Disaster Recovery with S3 + Lambda — No Ops Needed
🧨 The Problem
Every team talks about disaster recovery... until something actually goes down.
Manual snapshots? Too slow.
Console-based cross-region replication? Too manual.
I wanted an automated DR process I could trust — one that worked even if I wasn’t online.
I built this at VectorFlow to ensure critical security logs and badge records were backed up across regions without relying on manual ops or external tools.
🛠️ The Fix: Serverless Backup with S3 + Lambda
I built a system that:
- ✅ Triggers via CloudWatch Events or cron
- ✅ Copies selected data from S3 in Region A to Region B
- ✅ Uses KMS for encrypted copies + access logging
- ✅ Emails confirmation and logs results to S3
One-click DR protection — no EC2, no ops, no manual work.
📬 GitHub Link
Public-safe version with region toggles and retention logic:
👉
github.com/chinmaya-chhatre/disaster-recovery-automation
📈 What Changed
- 🛡️ Cross-region backups now happen daily — hands-free
- 📉 RTO (recovery time objective) cut by 80%
- ✅ Exec team signed off DR checklist with zero extra infra
⚖️ Tradeoffs I Made
- No Database Replication: Focused on S3 assets and static resources — not full RDS replication
- Simple Filtering: Used tag-based include/exclude logic rather than complex rules — easier to maintain
- Email-Based Confirmation: Chose SES over dashboard logging for portability and cost
🧠 What I'd Add Next
- 📦 Expand support to EBS and RDS snapshots
- 📊 Add CloudWatch metric for backup latency + failures
🧵 Why I’m Sharing This
Because real DR isn’t just a checkbox — it’s your insurance policy.
Because serverless can make backups feel invisible.
And because I never want to explain why there’s no restore point again.
📎 Bonus Links