3 Commonly Overlooked Areas of DRaaS Testing

You know that quarterly DR test you run? The one where you spin up the servers, see that they boot, grab a screenshot for documentation, and move on to the next fire?

Yeah, about that.

I'm not here to tell you you're doing it wrong. You're busy. You're following the same process every other MSP follows. Your provider makes it easy to check that box, and honestly, it feels like you're being responsible.

But I need to share a story with you—not to scare you, but because if I were in your shoes, I'd want someone to tell me this before I learned it the hard way.

The Story That Changes How You Think About DR Testing

An MSP was humming along, doing everything by the book. Backups running religiously. Quarterly DR tests—boot the servers, verify they're up, document it, shut it down. Premium DRaaS provider. They felt prepared. Their clients felt protected.

Then disaster struck one of their clients.

The MSP confidently clicked the button to spin up in the cloud. The servers came online beautifully—just like in the tests. Perfect.

And then... nothing worked.

Users couldn't connect. QuickBooks wouldn't function over the network. The firewall configuration was completely unfamiliar. They spent over a week trying to make it work while their client's business was essentially frozen.

They never figured it out. The client fired them.

Here's the thing: that MSP did everything the industry told them to do. They weren't cutting corners. They followed best practices, ran regular tests, chose a reputable provider.

And when it mattered most, none of it mattered.

Because there's a massive gap between "the server boots" and "the business can actually operate."

The Technical Reality: Why Boot Tests Aren't Enough

Let's break down what's actually happening:

See the gap? You're testing about 30% of what actually needs to work.

Here's why this matters more now: the complexity of disaster recovery has exploded while our testing practices have stayed relatively static.

A decade ago, firewalls enforced basic perimeter security—allow/deny rules, simple NAT configurations. Today's firewalls handle next-gen threat detection, advanced malware protection, multi-site VPN configurations, application-layer inspection, and compliance-specific security policies. Your DR environment needs to replicate this entire security posture, not just boot the servers behind it.

The Three Layers Most DR Testing Never Touches

Layer 1: Network Configuration and Security

When you boot servers in most DR environments, you're handed a basic firewall—often completely different from your production environment. If you're running SonicWall or Cisco in production, you're now configuring an unfamiliar platform during a crisis.

The technical challenge isn't just unfamiliarity. You need to recreate specific port forwarding rules, VPN tunnel configurations, network segmentation policies, security group rules, and DNS configurations—from memory or outdated documentation, because your reference environment just burned down.

Plus, that senior engineer who could configure this quickly? They're your most constrained resource, and getting three hours of their time for a DR test competes with billable client work.

Layer 2: Documentation Drift

Here's a scenario you'll recognize: Client calls at 4:30 PM Friday with an urgent issue. You troubleshoot, make a configuration change, solve the problem. You fully intend to update the documentation. But another ticket comes in, and by Monday that change is just "how the system works now" without formal documentation.

This isn't negligence—it's reality. But during disaster recovery, you're recreating an environment based on documentation that has drifted from reality. You don't know which ports were opened after the last DR test, what application dependencies changed, or what custom configurations exist that nobody documented.

You're reverse-engineering their production environment from incomplete specs while they're down.

Layer 3: Application Functionality

Boot tests validate that the OS comes online. They don't validate that applications actually function in the DR environment.

Does the application work over network connections instead of local access? Are database connection strings still valid? Do performance metrics meet acceptable thresholds? Are license servers accessible? Do integrations still function?

You won't discover these issues with a screenshot. You discover them when users try to actually work—and in a real disaster, that discovery happens while your client is losing money every hour.

How Servosity Removes the Heavy Lifting from DR Testing

Servosity's approach is built around a simple principle: your team shouldn't have to become DR infrastructure experts to deliver reliable disaster recovery.

Pre-Test: Defining Success Criteria

Before any test, there's a conversation about what "successful recovery" actually means: What applications need to be accessible? What network connectivity do users need? Are there compliance requirements? What's the acceptable performance baseline?

You're defining technical requirements and success criteria upfront—not just "can we boot the servers" but "can we actually run the business."

Test Execution: Full Environment Orchestration

When test time arrives, Servosity's engineers have already built the complete environment in an isolated AWS tenant. All servers booted with correct resources. Network configured with your specified routing. Firewall rules implemented. VPN tunnels established if needed.

You're not building this during the test. You're validating that it meets your requirements.

Your role is to test from the user perspective: Can your team connect? Do applications perform acceptably? You're testing outcomes, not building infrastructure.

Post-Test: Proven Documentation That Democratizes DR

After a successful test, everything gets documented—not theoretical documentation, but a validated runbook with exact server specifications, complete network topology, firewall rules, application-specific requirements, and performance baselines.

This documentation is proven because it's literally what worked during testing. But here's what makes it different: it's written so that anyone on your team can execute it, not just your senior engineers.

They're not making judgment calls about firewall configurations or troubleshooting VPN tunnels from scratch. They're executing a process that's been validated and documented in plain language. This transforms disaster recovery from "hope our senior guy is available" to "anyone on the team can kick this off."

When disaster strikes, you're not working from theory or scrambling to find the one person who knows how everything works—you're executing a tested process that's accessible to your entire team.

The Iteration Process

First comprehensive DR test? You'll probably find issues. Documentation that's outdated. Applications that need specific cloud configuration. Network requirements that weren't captured.

That's exactly why you test. You discover these issues in a controlled environment where you can methodically troubleshoot and document solutions. By the second or third test, you're validating a known-good configuration. When disaster strikes, you're executing a process you've proven works.

The Economics Make It Sustainable

Servosity includes the DR testing engineering work as part of the service. You're not billing senior engineer time to clients or absorbing it as overhead.

Traditional comprehensive DR testing requires 3-5 hours senior network engineer time, 2-3 hours systems engineer time, plus documentation and client coordination. At typical MSP labor rates, that's $1,500-2,500 per test. Quarterly testing becomes financially impractical.

When the engineering work is included, quarterly testing becomes sustainable. Your documentation stays current, your process stays validated, and your clients stay protected without destroying margins.

What This Actually Means for Your MSP

For your clients: They're buying validated business continuity. When you can demonstrate a DR test where applications function and business processes work—with documented evidence—you're delivering what they're actually paying for.

For your team: Disasters shift from high-stress troubleshooting to executing documented procedures. Your senior engineers aren't reverse-engineering network configurations at 2 AM—they're following a tested runbook. And more importantly, they don't have to be the only ones who can handle it. Your entire team has access to proven processes, which means you're not dependent on one or two people being available during a crisis.

For your business: This becomes a technical differentiator. When you're competing against MSPs showing boot screenshots while you're demonstrating comprehensive DR tests with validated RTOs and RPOs, you win the technical conversation.

Moving Past Industry-Standard Limitations

Nobody sets out to do inadequate DR testing. You're working within constraints: providers optimized for minimal testing, economics that make comprehensive testing expensive, and time pressures that make thorough testing feel impossible.

But your clients aren't paying for minimal testing. They're paying for validated recovery capabilities with documented procedures.

What if those constraints were different? What if DR testing didn't require massive time commitments or expensive engineering hours?

What if you could deliver comprehensive disaster recovery—without sacrificing profitability or burning out your team?

That's not theoretical. That's just a different approach to solving the same technical challenge every MSP faces.

You and your clients deserve better than screenshots and assumptions. You deserve tested, documented, validated disaster recovery that actually works when it matters most.