Backup & Recovery
Backups that restore, recovery objectives that mean something, and continuity planning sized for real businesses. 14 articles.
A backup only matters on the day you need it, and that day usually arrives as a deleted folder, a failed drive or a ransomware note rather than a tidy test. These guides cover the decisions that determine whether you recover in an hour or a week: what to back up, how long to keep it, how often to test a restore, why immutable and air-gapped copies defeat ransomware, and what the two numbers on every recovery plan, RTO and RPO, really commit you to.
They also cover the data people assume someone else protects, such as Microsoft 365 and other cloud applications. Start with the basics on the right, then work through the testing guides. Our backup and disaster recovery service applies the same practices for businesses across Oregon, with restores tested on a schedule rather than assumed.
The Disaster Recovery Runbook: Instructions Your Worst Day Can Actually Follow
A DR runbook turns backups into recovery — what goes in it, the restore order, the credential problem, validation steps, and keeping it findable when systems are down.
Backup Retention: How Long to Keep Backups (and Why 'Longer' Isn't Always Better)
How to set backup retention deliberately — the delayed-discovery problem, the grandfather-father-son pattern, legal obligations, and the cost math that makes it stick.
One Backup Strategy for Desktops, Servers, and Cloud: Drawing the Coverage Map
Your data lives in three worlds — endpoints, servers, and cloud services — and each fails differently. How to design one coordinated backup strategy across all three.
Backup Monitoring: Who Finds Out When Last Night's Backup Failed?
Backups fail silently and routinely — how real backup monitoring works, why success emails train people to stop reading, and the daily discipline that closes the gap.
Ransomware Recovery Readiness: The Twelve-Question Self-Audit
Could you actually recover from ransomware? A twelve-question scorecard across backups, identity, response, and decisions — with the honest scoring rubric.
How Often Should You Test Your Backups? (More Than Never, Less Than You Fear)
A practical backup testing schedule — what to test monthly, quarterly, and yearly, why "job succeeded" proves nothing, and how to keep tests cheap and honest.
Backing Up Your SaaS Applications: The Data Everyone Assumes Someone Else Protects
Your CRM, accounting, and project data live in vendors' clouds — what SaaS platforms actually protect, the export trap, and a right-sized backup strategy per app.
RTO and RPO: The Two Numbers That Decide Your Worst Day
Recovery time and recovery point objectives in plain English — what each number means, how to set yours honestly, and how they dictate what backup to buy.
From Ad-Hoc Tests to a Recovery Testing Program: Structure, Evidence, Ownership
How to turn occasional restore tests into a real program — scope by tier, the four test types, the evidence log that satisfies insurers, and who owns what.
Cloud Backup vs. Cloud Storage: The Difference That Bites in a Crisis
OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive are storage, not backup — why sync faithfully replicates disasters, what real backup adds, and how the two work together.
Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery: What's the Difference?
BC and DR get used interchangeably, but they answer different questions. What each covers, how RTO and RPO tie them together, and how to build a starter plan.
Air-Gapped Backups: When Unplugged Is Still the Strongest Word in Security
What an air-gapped backup really is, how it differs from immutable cloud copies, where the old-school approach still wins, and how to run one without the ritual failing.
Immutable Backups: The Copy Ransomware Can't Touch
What immutable backups are, why attackers hunting your backups made them essential, how immutability actually works, and the questions to ask your provider.
Testing Your Business Continuity Plan: The Drill Beats the Document
A continuity plan that's never been rehearsed is a theory — how to test the people-and-process side with tabletops, targeted drills, and a one-year cycle that sticks.