Techniques for providing data protection in high availability cluster environments. The techniques employ multiple layers of data protection, including a first layer that provides full data protection for a source storage system at a first-layer destination storage system, and a second layer of data protection that provides distributed data protection for the source storage system among a cluster of second-layer destination storage systems. By employing multiple layers of data protection for a source storage system in a high availability cluster environment, the techniques can provide (i) full data protection at the first-layer destination storage system and (ii) distributed data protection at the cluster of second-layer destination storage systems, reducing the chance of data loss due to failure of the source storage system and/or the first-layer destination storage system, and eliminating a data bottleneck from the first-layer destination storage system to the cluster of second-layer destination storage systems.