# Kafka Disaster Recovery: Why It Fails in Practice

Most Kafka teams believe they have disaster recovery covered. Replication is running, a backup cluster exists, and there is a runbook somewhere.

But when a real incident happens, recovery often takes hours. In this session, Andy Allison and Christoph Schubert discuss why Kafka DR often breaks down in practice and what teams can do to make recovery predictable and repeatable.

## What You'll Learn

- Why replication alone does not solve Kafka disaster recovery
- The operational challenges behind Kafka failover
- Common DR failure modes such as configuration drift and client coordination
- How platform teams structure DR to recover in minutes instead of hours
- Practical ways to evaluate your current Kafka DR strategy

## Related Resources

- **Checklist:** [Kafka Disaster Recovery Readiness Checklist](https://www.conduktor.io/resources/ebooks/kafka-disaster-recovery-readiness-checklist)
- **Blog:** [Kafka Disaster Recovery: The Complete Strategy Beyond Replication](https://www.conduktor.io/blog/kafka-disaster-recovery-the-complete-strategy-beyond-replication)
- **Blog:** [How Gateway Reduces Kafka DR from Hours to Minutes](https://www.conduktor.io/blog/how-gateway-reduces-kafka-dr-from-hours-to-minutes)

## Speakers

Andy Allison — Head of Product & Go-To-Market, Conduktor

Christoph Schubert — Senior Product Manager, Conduktor