A distributed data center topology having at least a pair of active data centers that can recover from a disaster at one of the data centers and achieves load balancing using IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol) between data centers. The distributed data centers use virtual IP addresses, route health injection and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for business continuance, disaster recovery and load balancing. Active applications are deployed at each data center to provide a logical active/standby configuration for certain applications. Alternatively, active applications are deployed at both sites and BGP routes traffic to the closest data center edge router. Load balancing occurs over an internal IGP link between sites.