Hybrid Active-Active Platform
Designing and delivering a resilient active-active hybrid platform across duel data centres and public cloud in a highly regulated government environment.
Engagement Overview
This engagement was delivered for a highly regulated government organisation operating mission-critical digital services, where continuous availability, predictable recovery, and strict compliance with security and audit requirements were mandatory.
At the outset, the organisation operated multiple on-premises data centres supporting a mix of high-value legacy and modern applications. Midway through the programme, a government-wide cloud-first strategy was introduced, requiring the platform to evolve towards public cloud adoption without disrupting existing services or increasing operational risk.
The solution therefore needed to support true active-active on-premises operation, while also enabling a controlled, incremental transition to public cloud.
Business & Technical Challenges
The primary challenge was designing a platform capable of true active-active operation across geographically separate data centres, while also preparing for future integration with public cloud services.
Key constraints included:
Strict regulatory, security, and audit requirements
Legacy applications not designed for cloud-native architectures
Zero tolerance for data inconsistency or unplanned downtime
A requirement to avoid disruptive migrations
Performance sensitivity for high-end, business-critical workloads
Any solution needed to preserve operational stability while enabling long-term modernisation.
Architecture Strategy
A hybrid active-active architecture was selected to balance resilience, control, and future scalability. The design focused on eliminating single points of failure while maintaining consistent operational patterns across environments.
Rather than treating cloud as a separate tier, the platform was designed as a unified system spanning on-premises infrastructure and public cloud, ensuring workloads could operate consistently regardless of location, while still meeting regulatory and audit requirements.
Platform Design (High Level)
The solution implemented active-active operation across two primary on-premises data centres using enterprise-grade NetApp storage with synchronous replication to ensure deterministic data consistency.
NetApp SnapMirror synchronous replication was used to maintain real-time data alignment between sites, allowing critical workloads to remain active across both locations and continue operating seamlessly in the event of a site-level failure.
Following the introduction of the cloud-first strategy, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP was introduced within AWS to extend the same storage and replication model into the public cloud. This allowed:
Consistent storage services across on-premises and AWS
Replication of critical datasets into cloud without application redesign
Gradual workload migration rather than forced re-platforming
Bidirectional movement of workloads between environments if required
Cloud-based storage volumes were attached directly to EC2 instances, preserving performance characteristics and operational familiarity for existing applications.
Architectural guidance ensured that application and storage placement avoided latency-sensitive split-tier designs, supporting optimal performance for high-end workloads.
Delivery & Ways of Working
The platform was delivered using a collaborative DevOps-led approach, working closely with internal engineering, security, and operations teams.
Infrastructure was defined and managed using Infrastructure as Code from the outset, providing:
Consistent, repeatable environments
Controlled and auditable change processes
Reduced configuration drift across sites
Changes were introduced incrementally, with rigorous validation to ensure service continuity. Operational processes were aligned with existing governance models, enabling long-term supportability without specialist dependency.
Outcomes & Impact
The resulting platform delivered true active-active capability across dual data centres with integrated public cloud support.
Key outcomes included:
Improved resilience and fault tolerance for critical services
Reduced recovery risk through synchronous replication
A clear, low-risk path to cloud adoption
Preservation of service continuity during strategic transformation
The architecture provided confidence that critical services would remain available during maintenance events, infrastructure failures, or site-level incidents, without compromising regulatory obligations or operational stability.