Patent ID: 8112659

Claim:
A disaster recovery system for processing user requests received from client systems, said disaster recovery system comprising: a primary site containing a first set of nodes to process user requests during a normal operation of said disaster recovery system; a backup site implemented as a cluster containing a second set of nodes, which are designed to be used in a standby state during said normal operation of said disaster recovery system, wherein said first set of nodes execute a first plurality of application instances and said second set of nodes execute a second plurality of application instances during said normal operation of said business organization, wherein a first set of user requests received during said normal operation are processed using only said first plurality of instances, wherein said second plurality of instances are used in a standby state during said normal operation, wherein said second plurality of application instances is fewer than said first plurality of application instances, upon identification of a disaster, said second set of nodes to process user requests using said second plurality of application instances instead of said first set of nodes, and to thereafter scale out said cluster to add a third set of nodes, wherein said second set of nodes and said third set of nodes together process user requests in a duration of said disaster.