Most small businesses think they're backed up until the day they need to restore something. Spend ten minutes on these questions. If you can't answer yes to all of them, it's worth fixing before you need it.
1. Do you know where your files actually are?
List where business files live: the office computer, laptops, USB drives, Dropbox, email attachments, a staff member's personal account. Anything that only exists in one place is one dead laptop away from being gone.
2. Do you follow the 3-2-1 rule?
A simple standard: three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one copy off site. For example, files on your computers, synced to cloud storage, plus a separate backup that keeps older versions.
3. Does it run by itself?
A backup that relies on someone remembering to plug in a drive on Friday won't happen when you're busy. Good backups run automatically, every day.
4. Can you get back last month's version?
Ransomware and accidental deletions often aren't noticed straight away. Syncing alone isn't a backup: if a file is deleted or encrypted, the sync copies that too. You need version history, or a backup that keeps older copies.
5. Is your email included?
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace keep email running, but deleted items are only kept for a limited time. If email is critical to your business, consider a separate backup for it.
6. Have you ever tested a restore?
The only way to know a backup works is to restore something from it. Pick a file and try. If you can't, or don't know how, that's your answer.
What next?
We set up backups that run on their own, test that they actually restore, and can move your files into a private cloud with version history.