The mistake we find almost every time
It is rare that there is no backup at all. What we usually find is a backup set up years ago that has not run properly for months – and nobody has looked at it, because it tells no one when it fails. It gets noticed on the day it is needed, which is exactly the worst possible day.
The second most common mistake: the backup sits in the same building as the data. That helps against a broken disk. It does not help against burglary, fire or flooding.
How we set it up
Three copies, two media, one off site. That is the sensible minimum and our default: the original data, a fast local copy to restore within minutes, and a copy outside the building for the serious case.
Protected against deletion. Ransomware looks for the backups before it encrypts the data – so the off-site target is set up so that it cannot be changed or deleted for a defined period, not even from inside your own network.
Encrypted before it leaves. The data is encrypted in your network and travels encrypted. The key is not stored at the destination.
With an alert when it fails. A backup job that ends with an error has to reach someone. That someone is us when we look after the installation.
And tested. Regular test restores, with the result in writing. It is the only way to know it works.
What gets backed up
Complete servers, not just folders – restoring a whole system is much faster than reinstalling and reconfiguring it. Plus mailboxes and files in Microsoft 365, which many people assume are backed up when they are not: Microsoft guarantees its service, not the recovery of something someone deleted three months ago.
On properties with video surveillance, recordings are handled separately: they take up a lot of space, may only be kept for a limited time and rarely belong in the same backup as working data.
On a finca that stands empty for part of the year, there is often less data, but the question is the same: is there a copy off site, and does anyone notice when the backup stops?
How long it takes to get back to work
That is the figure worth deciding in advance, because it determines everything else. Accepting half a day of downtime is not the same as needing to be running again within an hour – the second case calls for a fast local copy and, depending on the situation, a spare machine.
We discuss this at the start and tell you what each option costs. Promising a figure without knowing your installation would not be serious.
Review of what you already have
If backups are already running, we start by checking them: what is really being backed up, when the last successful run was, whether it can be restored and whether it would survive a fire. At the end you have a report of what we found, and we tell you frankly whether adjusting what is there is enough.
FAQ
We already make backups. Why check them?
Because hardly anyone checks whether they can be restored. The most common problem we find is not a missing backup: it is one that has not run properly for months and that nobody has looked at, because it does not alert anyone when it fails.
Is an external hard drive enough?
For a personal computer it may be. For a business it is not, for three reasons: it stays in the same building, nobody swaps it when it is due, and ransomware also reaches a drive that is connected.
What is the 3-2-1 rule?
Three copies of the data, on two different media, one of them outside the building. It is the minimum with which a backup still exists after a burglary, a fire or a flood.
Does this protect against ransomware?
Only if the backup cannot be deleted or overwritten from the attacked system. We work with storage that prevents changes for a defined period, precisely for that case.
Where is the data stored?
At destinations within the European Union, encrypted before it leaves your network. We tell you exactly where it ends up before we start, not afterwards.
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