Ensuring Business Continuity: Azure App Service Web Apps Disaster Recovery Updates by March 31, 2025

Microsoft recently announced a critical change to Azure App Service web applications; as of March 31, 2025, it will cease all disaster recovery mode actions should a disaster occur in an Azure region. Read the full announcement here.

Right now if there is a regional disaster for Platform-as-a-Service App Services in Azure, there is a SLA (Service Level Agreement) from Microsoft indicating that it would place a customer’s apps in disaster recovery mode and recover them in a different region. But this will no longer be the case after March 31, 2025. 

These anticipated changes will have significant implications for disaster recovery and business continuity strategies that require timely action. Basically, when the changes go into effect - customers will be responsible for disaster recovery. 

Organizations need to deploy robust disaster recovery techniques to mitigate potential web app functionality and data losses in the event of a disaster, cyber attack, or other unexpected occurrence.  

While these changes may appear distant, they are fast approaching. This is especially true if you're managing a complex environment. The sooner you take action, the better prepared you'll be to navigate the challenges ahead.

At CloudServus we focus on well architected solutions, specializing on ensuring customer’s critical line of business applications are protected from disasters. CloudServus has worked with many customers to ensure that from the infrastructure to multi-region deployments, your solutions remain online to your customers and end-users. 

Preparing for the March 31, 2025 Azure App Service web apps Disaster Recovery Changes  

Disaster recovery for Azure App Service web applications requires careful planning, regular testing, and ongoing maintenance to ensure that the application and its associated data can be restored quickly and effectively. 

Implementing a disaster recovery strategy for Azure App Service web applications will depend on the configuration of the application and the organization’s requirements. But typically this involves a number of steps, including: 

• Define recovery objectives: Organizations need to first define the recovery objectives for their Azure App Service web applications, including the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). This specifies how much data can be lost in the event of a disaster and how quickly the applications must be restored. 
• Identify critical components: The critical components of the organization’s Azure App Service web applications should be identified, including the application code, configuration settings, and any associated databases or storage accounts. 
• Establish backup and restore procedures: Backup and restore procedures must be established for the Azure Web Service web applications; this encompasses how often backups should be taken, where they should be stored, and how they should be tested. 
• Establishing a secondary deployment: A secondary deployment of their Azure App Service web applications in a different geographic region via a load balancing solution to ensure that users can access the application even if the primary deployment is unavailable.  
• Testing the disaster recovery plan: Organizations should regularly test their disaster recovery plan to ensure that it’s effective; this includes testing the backup and restore procedures and the failover to the secondary deployment. 
• Monitoring for potential issues: The Azure App Service web applications must be monitored over time for any potential issues so problems can be addressed as rapidly as possible to minimize the impact of a disaster. 
• Reviewing and updating the disaster recovery plan: Disaster recovery plans need to be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it remains relevant and effective. This should extend to updating the plan to reflect changes to the Azure App Service web applications or the organization’s requirements.  

At CloudServus, we’re well versed in helping organizations stay ahead of the latest updates and changes to their Azure suite of technologies and solutions.  

As a top 1% Microsoft consultancy, our team can implement a disaster recovery plan for your Azure App Service web applications in an efficient, cost-effective approach that ensures you’re not simply just doubling your hosting costs.  

We can assist you with creating recovery plans that will scale the secondary infrastructure up or down, keeping your data tier in sync with any frontend application or API application failovers. We can also just as easily help you achieve an active environment across multiple regions and align your CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) with deployments in an efficient engagement that has you quickly up and running with your disaster recovery solutions. 

Be sure to connect with us at CloudServus to get a jumpstart on the upcoming changes to Azure App Service web applications on March 31st, 2025 and maintain the effectiveness of your disaster recovery plan.