Your data
Backup & Business Continuity
Most businesses have something backing up. Far fewer have watched a restore work, and you only find out which group you're in on the day you need the data back.
Signs Your Backup Needs Attention
Something is backing up, but nobody has restored from it, so nobody knows what it would give back.
If any of these describe your business, this service is usually the right place to start.
- You have backup software and no idea when it last succeeded.
- A cyber insurance questionnaire asks backup questions you can't answer.
- Your business couldn't operate for long without one particular system.
- You moved to the cloud and assumed backup came with it.
Benefits of Tested Backup and Continuity
- A file someone deleted this morning comes back without a project.
- You know what a restore involves here, because we've done one.
- After a ransomware attack, recovery is a decision you control.
- Someone can tell you what would happen if a server failed tonight.
How We Design Backup and Recovery
We start by finding out what your current backup covers, because it's rarely what people believe. Two common findings are cloud data that was never included and a server that quietly stopped reporting months ago.
Then we set recovery targets with you in plain terms: how much work you can afford to lose, and how long you can afford to be down. Those two numbers set the design and the cost, and they're business decisions.
After that, we monitor every backup and restore from it on a schedule. When you need it for real, you're relying on something that has already worked.
What Backup and Business Continuity Includes
A review of what's actually protected
What's being copied and what's being missed, written down. We also check how far back a restore can reach.
Recovery targets in plain terms
How much work you can lose and how long you can be down, decided by you.
Local and off-site copies
One copy on site for speed and one elsewhere, so a fire or a flood doesn't also mean data loss.
Copies an attacker can't quietly delete
Ransomware goes looking for backups first. Yours are held so that reaching your network doesn't mean reaching them. One of the case studies below covers a manufacturer whose backups were the first thing encrypted.
Tested restores, on a schedule
We restore from backup deliberately and record the result, so the first real test isn't an emergency.
A written continuity plan
Who does what, in what order. A plan that lives in one person's head doesn't help anyone else on the day.
Setting Up Backup and Continuity, Step by Step
- We decide what has to come back firstNot everything matters equally. The line-of-business system and email come first, and the folder nobody has opened since 2019 can wait.
- We keep copies where one fire can't reach bothOne copy on site for speed and one off site for survival, encrypted in both places. No single accident should be able to take the original and the copy.
- We restore from it on purposeOn a schedule, with the result reported to you whether or not it's good news. See backup monitoring and testing.
- We write down what happens when it's neededWho gets called and what order systems come back in. That document is worth more on the day than any piece of software, and disaster recovery planning covers how we write it.
Cloud Applications Still Need Their Own Backup
This is the assumption we correct most often, and it applies to every cloud system you run. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce and QuickBooks are all built to survive their own outages, and none of them is built to undo what someone in your business did on a Tuesday.
Deleted mail, an overwritten shared drive, a bad import that rewrites thousands of records and a leaver who empties their own account all look like valid instructions to the vendor. They get copied faithfully everywhere your data lives. Cloud-to-cloud backup keeps an independent copy, and it's inexpensive work compared with finding out nobody had one.
Our post on the backup you have versus the backup you think you have covers the most common gaps. Backup is a core control in our cybersecurity services, and for medical practices a backup and a written contingency plan are part of what HIPAA requires.
In their words
Related Case Studies
Backup and Business Continuity FAQ
How is backup and continuity priced?
Per protected device and per server, with storage sized to how much data you hold and how far back you want to reach.
We'll tell you what a longer retention period costs before you choose it, so the cost doesn't surface for the first time on a renewal.
How do we know the backup is working?
Because we look at it every day. We monitor for failures and restore from backup on a schedule. You get the result either way, including the months when something failed.
Are our cloud applications already backed up?
Not in the way most people mean, and that's true of Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce and your finance system alike. The vendor keeps the service available and holds deleted items for a limited window, which covers a mistake noticed quickly. Recovering records someone cleared out last quarter takes a separate product, such as Microsoft 365 backup.
How long would it take to get us running again?
That depends on the design, which is why we agree on the target first. A recovery measured in hours costs more than one measured in days, and you choose between them with the numbers in front of you.
Ready to discuss Backup & Continuity today?
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If you'd rather not use the calendar, call 440.210.1362 and we'll set up a time with you.
Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern
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