Imagine your security and compliance team has been tasked with ensuring that critical customer data is always available, even during a full regional outage in AWS. The business requirement mandates an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO of 60 seconds for object storage and application availability.
Your mission as the GRC engineer is to validate that cloud architecture meets those continuity objectives using AWS-native services, not just by writing policy, but by codifying resilience and failover into infrastructure. This lab simulates how to do exactly that.
You'll build a dual-region, failover-ready setup with AWS S3, Route 53, and CloudFormation.Then map it directly to NIST and ISO controls, and document how RPO/RTO targets are achieved (or simulated) within the design.
The selected disaster recovery strategy is Warm Standby .A cost-optimized balance that meets the strict RPO and RTO requirements without the full overhead of Multi-Site Active/Active. Core infrastructure is kept online and replicated across regions, while non-critical services can be scaled up on demand.
By completing this lab, you will:
- Simulate a multi-region architecture for data and DNS resilience
- Codify cross-region S3 replication and latency-based routing
- Understand how RPO and RTO objectives map to AWS components
- Define failover processes aligned to business continuity controls (e.g., NIST CP-10, ISO A.17.1)
- Produce auditor-friendly evidence (validation checklist + control mapping)
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
code/cloudformation/ |
IaC templates to deploy S3 buckets, Route 53 records, replication config |
docs/architecture-diagram.png |
Visual showing multi-region layout + failover paths |
docs/rpo-rto-mapping.md |
Table mapping each AWS service to its RPO/RTO objective |
simulation-plan.md |
Step-by-step simulation of regional failover scenario |
validation-checklist.md |
Audit-ready validation items for resilience and control effectiveness |
Simulate a partial or full regional outage affecting the primary S3 bucket and Route 53 routing endpoint. Measure how failover logic ensures minimal data loss and rapid DNS redirection.
- Two S3 buckets:
s3-primary(e.g., us-east-1)s3-secondary(e.g., us-west-2)
- Cross-region replication from primary to secondary
- Static website hosting (optional) enabled on both buckets
- Route 53 latency-based DNS routing or failover routing configured to direct traffic to the closest healthy region
- Simulate failure by blocking or deleting
s3-primarybucket policy (manual action) - Observe:
- Route 53 switching to
s3-secondary - Data consistency from replication
- Time between failure and full recovery
- Route 53 switching to
- Evaluate delay between replication from primary to secondary
- Confirm if most recent files are intact within the 5-minute window
- Track time between DNS rerouting initiation and service availability in the backup region
- Validate 60-second target using Route 53 health checks + TTL
- Use CloudWatch Logs or CLI outputs to track time of failover event
- Optional: Add Lambda to log failover initiation or alert security team
| AWS Service | Purpose | Expected RPO | Expected RTO | GRC Control Alignment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S3 (Cross-Region Replication) | Object replication from primary to secondary region | ≤ 5 minutes | N/A | NIST CP-10(4), ISO 27001 A.17.1.2 |
| Route 53 (Failover Routing) | Switch DNS to healthy region | N/A | ≤ 60 seconds | NIST CP-10(3), ISO 27001 A.17.2.1 |
| CloudFormation (IaC) | Rapid infra redeployment and teardown | N/A | N/A | NIST CM-2, ISO 27001 A.12.1.2 |
| IAM Roles & Policies | Scoped permissions for replication and failover actions | N/A | N/A | NIST AC-6, ISO 27001 A.9.2.3 |
| CloudWatch + Lambda (optional) | Trigger failover alerts or simulate automation | ≤ 1 minute | ≤ 1 minute | NIST IR-4, ISO 27001 A.16.1.5 |
| Validation Task | Method | Pass Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Verify S3 cross-region replication works | Upload file to primary bucket and check secondary | Object appears in secondary within 5 minutes |
| Validate Route 53 failover triggers | Simulate failure of primary endpoint | DNS resolves to secondary endpoint within 60 seconds |
| Confirm DNS TTL behavior | Query failover domain and check TTL settings | TTL ≤ 60s and reflects changeover as expected |
| Ensure IAM roles are scoped properly | Review IAM role policies in console or IaC | Least privilege principles followed, no wildcards unless justified |
| Confirm CloudFormation teardown success | Delete stacks and check for leftover resources | No residual buckets, records, roles remain |
| Optional: Validate logging function | Trigger simulated failover | CloudWatch log entry appears within 1 minute |
- Disaster Recovery Planning with AWS
- RPO/RTO alignment to business continuity controls
- Infrastructure as Code using CloudFormation
- DNS-based failover design using Route 53
- GRC documentation with validation mapping to NIST/ISO
- Multi-region AWS S3 and security-first architecture