“I’ve got everything backed up.”
It’s something IT technicians hear all the time.
Then the hard drive dies.
The computer won’t start.
The customer opens their backup drive and discovers that the last backup was created three years ago.
Or worse — the backup drive has failed too.
Having a backup system and having a backup you can actually restore from are two very different things.
What exactly is a backup?
A backup is a separate copy of your important data that can be recovered if the original is lost, damaged, corrupted or encrypted.
That last part is important.
Simply having files in another location doesn’t automatically mean you have a reliable backup strategy.
For example, if your computer automatically synchronises files to another location and ransomware encrypts those files, the encrypted versions may also be synchronised.
Why one backup isn’t enough
Imagine your business has one external hard drive containing all of its backups.
That sounds reasonable.
Until the hard drive fails.
Now your computer and your backup are both gone.
A better approach is to maintain multiple copies in different locations.
One commonly used approach is the 3-2-1 backup strategy:
- 3 copies of important data
- 2 different types of storage
- 1 copy stored somewhere else
For example, your business might have its original files on a workstation or server, a local backup on another device, and an additional cloud backup.
Cloud storage isn’t necessarily backup
Services such as OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox are extremely useful.
However, synchronisation and backup are not exactly the same thing.
Synchronisation is designed to keep files consistent between devices.
Backup is designed around recovery.
If a file is accidentally deleted and that deletion synchronises everywhere, you may discover that you don’t have the recovery options you expected.
A proper backup solution should provide versioning, retention and reliable recovery.
What about ransomware?
Ransomware has changed the way businesses need to think about backups.
If ransomware encrypts your computer and your backup system is permanently connected to it, the backup could potentially be affected as well.
This is why modern backup strategies should consider:
- Offline or isolated copies
- Cloud backups
- Version history
- Retention policies
- Monitoring
- Backup verification
- Regular restore testing
A backup that has never been tested is essentially a theory.
You also need to back up more than documents
People often remember their Word and Excel files but forget about everything else.
Depending on the business, important data might include:
- Emails
- Accounting data
- Customer databases
- Photos
- Documents
- Browser data
- Application data
- Website files
- Configuration files
- Servers and virtual machines
If losing it would cause a serious problem, it should be considered when designing the backup strategy.
The most important part: test your backups
A successful backup notification doesn’t necessarily mean that you can recover your business.
The real question is:
Can you restore the data?
Backups should periodically be tested to confirm that files can actually be recovered.
For businesses, this should be part of an ongoing process rather than something checked once and forgotten.
Don’t wait until something breaks
Hard drives fail.
Computers get stolen.
Phones get lost.
Files get accidentally deleted.
Malware happens.
Hardware doesn’t care whether you’ve got an important presentation due tomorrow morning.
A proper backup strategy turns a potentially catastrophic event into an inconvenience.
At Tech-Away, we can help assess your current backup setup, configure local and cloud backups, and make sure your important data isn’t relying on a single device sitting underneath a desk.