A backup plan comes down to three questions: what you back up, how fast you need it back, and how you prove it will actually work. Here’s a simple way to think it through.
1. What to back up
Start with the systems your business stops without:
- Servers — the applications, files and databases your team uses every day.
- Workstations and laptops — especially for remote staff, where important files often live only on the device.
- Microsoft 365 — your email and files in the cloud. Microsoft keeps the service running, but a separate backup keeps your own copy (see What Microsoft 365 keeps, and what it doesn’t).
2. How fast you need it back
Decide how long you could keep working if a system went down, and how much recent work you could afford to redo. Everyday restores come back quickly from the on-site appliance. For a real disaster, the cloud copy takes over, and we can run your systems as virtual machines in our cloud with Virtual Office so your team keeps working while the originals are repaired. Because servers can be backed up as often as every 15 minutes, you can restore to a recent point in time rather than losing a day’s work.
3. How to prove it will work
A backup you have never tested is a guess. Two things turn it into a plan: nightly checks (AutoVerify) that test-boot the latest backup and check it for corruption, and deletion protection (AirGap) that keeps recovery points from being changed or wiped. Our team also watches backup status and follows up when a job fails.
Then pick the plan that fits
On-site appliance plus cloud for office servers, cloud only for a few servers or remote laptops, and Microsoft 365 backup on top of either. See Appliance or cloud only? to choose, or talk to our team.
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