Backup and disaster recovery
The question is not whether you have backups. It is when someone last proved they restore
Almost every organisation we assess has backups running. A much smaller number can tell us the last time a restore was tested end to end, how long it would take, or which systems come back first.
Our managed backup and disaster recovery service covers all three: protected data, a rehearsed recovery plan, and the evidence that both actually work.
- ISO 27001 certified data centres
- Test restores and rehearsed recovery scenarios
- Custom RPO and RTO built around your business
- Continuous monitoring, fully managed
- Integrated with our cyber security service
Backups that exist but do not work
Backup failures are almost never discovered on a normal Tuesday. They are discovered on the worst day of the year, by someone who assumed it was handled.
- The job has been failing silently. Alerts routed to a mailbox nobody reads, or to someone who left.
- Something important was never in scope. A new system, a new share, a new SaaS platform that nobody added to the schedule.
- The restore has never been tested. A backup that has not been restored is a hypothesis, not a safeguard.
- Recovery takes far longer than anyone assumed. The data is there, but getting it back into a working system takes days rather than hours.
- Nobody knows the running order. When everything is down, which system comes back first is a business decision that should have been made in advance.
- The backups were the first target. Ransomware crews go for the recovery path before the live data, because a business that can restore does not pay.
Managed backup and disaster recovery services, not a piece of software
We use best of breed backup technology, but the technology is the easy part. What matters is that somebody is watching it, testing it and accountable for it.
- Enterprise-grade securityData stored in ISO 27001 certified data centres, encrypted, with access controlled and logged. Compliance evidence available when the auditor asks rather than assembled afterwards.
- Resilient cloud backupsProtection against site outages, ransomware and malicious deletion, with copies held away from the environment they are protecting.
- Fast recoveryLocal copies for rapid restore to on-site servers, and cloud access that gets you to your data without waiting for a full restore first.
- Recovery built around youRecovery point and recovery time objectives set against what your business can actually tolerate, system by system, rather than one blanket target.
- Tested, not assumedScheduled test restores and disaster recovery scenario planning, so the first time anybody runs the plan is not during a real incident.
- Fully managed, with a named ownerContinuous monitoring, failed jobs chased by our team, and one person accountable for it. You should not have to check whether your backups ran.Book a free consultation
A failed backup job is a security signal, not a storage error
Run by different suppliers, backup and security miss the same pattern: jobs start failing, someone logs a storage issue, and the real event is an attacker removing the recovery path before doing anything visible. Our managed backup and disaster recovery service runs inside the cyber security service, so a failed job is treated as the early warning it is.
Starting from what the business cannot lose
The first conversation is about the business, not the technology: which systems and data you cannot operate without, and for how long.
- 01
Work out what matters
Which systems and data the business genuinely cannot operate without, and for how long. That is a business conversation, not a technical one. - 02
Set real targets
Recovery point and recovery time objectives per system, agreed with the people who would be affected. - 03
Design the protection
Local and cloud copies, retention, immutability and where the copies live relative to what they are protecting. - 04
Write the plan
Running order, who does what, who gets told, and how you operate while recovery is happening. - 05
Test it, then watch it
Scheduled restores and scenario rehearsals, with the results written down and the gaps fixed. Then continuous monitoring, failed jobs chased, and reporting that shows the service is actually working.
RTO vs RPO, in plain English
Every business continuity and disaster recovery plan comes down to two numbers per system. Most plans we read do not state either, which is why the first restore test is usually a surprise.
- RTORecovery time objectiveHow long you can be down. The time between the outage and the system being usable again. It sets how fast the recovery path has to be, and what that costs to provide.
- RPORecovery point objectiveHow much you can afford to lose. The gap between the last good copy and the moment things went wrong. Fifteen minutes and twenty four hours are two very different backup designs.
- DRaaSDisaster recovery as a serviceSomebody else runs it. The copies, the recovery environment and the rehearsals provided and monitored as a managed service, so recovery does not depend on a document nobody has opened.
We agree an RTO and an RPO for every system during set-up, and they are what the scheduled test restores are measured against. If your current disaster recovery plan does not state them, that is the first thing to fix.
When did you last test a restore?
If the honest answer is that you are not sure, that is worth half an hour of somebody’s time. We will look at what is protected, what is not, how long recovery would actually take and where the gaps are.
Related: Cyber Security, Managed IT Services and Cloud Services.
