In planning for business continuity and disaster recovery, it is crucial to carefully consider the application layer when using a core business service like Couchbase. High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR), and Business Continuity (BC) need to be understood to ensure they meet agreed-upon Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Companies must protect against unexpected service outages that can severely impact their internal or external stakeholders and customers, including databases which are critical to the functioning of the business. Understanding SLAs and how they are measured is essential, as well as considering metrics such as Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO). The anatomy of why a service fails must be considered, as this affects how services need protection. Business continuity solutions can mitigate against application service outages and minimize downtime, with options including clustering, replication, and backup. Choosing the correct availability strategy is crucial to meet SLAs and business objectives, requiring a realistic approach to recovery timeframes while considering cost implications.