The Modern Language Association (MLA) is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City that is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The organization includes over 20,000 members in 100 countries, primarily academic scholars, professors, and graduate students who study or teach language and literature, including English, other modern languages, and comparative literature.
MLA’s core operations and services depend heavily on its digital assets, including EC2 instances, RDS databases, and a complex AWS environment. However, the lack of a comprehensive disaster recovery (DR) strategy posed significant risks. The organization faced potential data loss, service outages, and operational disruption in the event of a regional catastrophe. Key challenges included the need for:
MLA partnered with Tgix to design and implement a phased disaster recovery (DR) strategy, leveraging an alternate AWS region as the designated DR site. This comprehensive solution was built around robust replication, high availability, backup strategies, and streamlined failover processes to ensure seamless recovery.
The DR strategy featured a sophisticated data replication approach. For critical workloads, AWS Elastic DR enabled near-real-time replication of EC2 instances to the DR region. Non-critical instances were safeguarded through daily snapshots of EBS volumes and AMIs, which were systematically copied to the DR region. To ensure up-to-the-minute data availability, cross-regional read replicas were employed for RDS databases, creating an additional layer of data protection.
High availability (HA) and backup strategies played a pivotal role in the solution. Multi-AZ configurations with redundant systems and network components, such as NAT Gateways, were implemented to minimize service interruptions. Automated backups for EBS and RDS were managed using a smart tagging strategy, enabling efficient identification and recovery of resources. Furthermore, metadata for critical infrastructure components—such as VPCs, subnets, and security groups—was securely stored in an S3 bucket, facilitating rapid recovery of the network environment.
The DR site’s core infrastructure was designed to mirror MLA’s primary environment. Identically configured network components, including Application Load Balancers (ALBs), VPN servers, and SSL certificates, were pre-provisioned in the DR region to enable seamless failover. These pre-configurations ensured MLA could maintain service continuity with minimal downtime during a disaster event.
Failover processes were meticulously planned and documented. A detailed runbook outlined step-by-step workflows for activating the DR site, promoting read replicas to primary databases, and restoring snapshots. DNS failover capabilities were implemented using Amazon Route 53, allowing for efficient redirection of workloads to the DR region in the event of an outage.
This well-architected DR solution provided MLA with a scalable and reliable framework, ensuring operational continuity while meeting the organization’s stringent recovery objectives.
The successful execution of disaster recovery (DR) tests across multiple workloads demonstrated MLA’s robust preparedness for potential system failures, data loss, or unforeseen disaster events. By implementing a comprehensive DR strategy, MLA significantly enhanced the resilience of its services, ensuring critical systems are recoverable within the organization’s defined Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) for all key workloads.
The optimized infrastructure and instance configurations delivered a cost-effective solution, balancing performance and budget efficiency. Furthermore, the solution is designed to support incremental improvements, such as enhanced automation and reduced recovery times, without incurring substantial additional costs. This scalable approach positions MLA for continued operational reliability and adaptability in the face of evolving business demands.
Core AWS (VPC, EC2, ALB, Route 53, ACM)
PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB RDS
OpenVPN Access Server
CloudFront
AWS Elastic DR
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