Almost everyone I talk to has backups. Almost nobody has ever tried restoring from one. Those are not the same thing.
A backup nobody has tested is a belief
"We have backups" usually means a job runs and a green light shows. It does not tell you the job has been copying what you think it copies. Backups quietly fail for months. They cover half of what you assumed, skip the folder that changed, or run into an expired login or a full disk. Nobody finds out until the day they need the data.
The backup running is not the safety net. A tested, working restore is the safety net.
The twenty-minute test
On a slow afternoon, pull one file back from your backup. It does not have to be an important one. Any file will do. Then notice three things:
- Did the file come back at all, and was it the version you expected?
- How long did it take, from deciding to restore until you could open it?
- Could someone other than the person who set it up have done it?
If the answer to the third is no, the backup depends on one person's memory, which is its own problem.
What a backup should cover
A common rule of thumb is three copies of your data, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy somewhere else, away from the building and away from the network that could be attacked. The off-site, separate copy matters because ransomware looks for backups it can reach and encrypts those too.
Beyond the files on your computers, ask what else lives only in one place: your email, shared drives and cloud applications. Many cloud services keep your data available but do not promise to give back a file you deleted or an account that was compromised. Ask which of those are backed up, by whom, and for how long.
Questions worth answering in writing
- What exactly is backed up, and what is not?
- Where do the copies live, and could one incident reach all of them?
- How far back can we go?
- Who gets an alert if a backup fails, and does anyone read it?
- How long would a full restore take, and have we ever timed it?
If you cannot answer most of these, a restore test is the fastest way to learn where you stand. It takes twenty minutes and saves you from finding out the hard way. Tying it to the monthly checks a managed IT partner runs is how it stops depending on anyone remembering.
If you would like a second set of eyes on this, call or text (316) 347-7630, or send us a note.