Re-evaluating High Availability Options for Modern Cybersecurity Threats

Vega Systems Inc., Sept 2025

Executive Summary

The Dimensions of a VMS' State Machine

High availability (HA) has long been understood in terms of two essentials: the ability of redundant components to take over when the primary fails (failover) and the need for those components to continue in the same state as the primary (consistency). But in an era of AI-driven malware, these measures are no longer sufficient. A third dimension—cybersecurity—is now critical, ensuring that the compromise of one system does not become a pathway to compromising its redundant counterpart. To this we add a fourth: efficiency, or the ability of a single redundant component to safeguard multiple primaries at once.

This paper evaluates approaches to achieve the high availability of SQL databases, application services, and recorded media in Milestone Systems' XProtect VMS across these four dimensions. By comparing traditional active-passive mechanisms with newer active-active approaches, it becomes clear that while active-active designs require innovative methods to achieve failover and consistency, they deliver stronger cyber resilience, higher efficiency, and a more future-proof foundation for VMS deployments.