Backup and recovery planning guide

Backup and recovery planning guide

Print this guide 10 min · Worksheet

A backup is only useful if you can recover from it quickly enough to keep your business running. This guide helps you decide what you need and check whether you have it. Fill in the worksheet, then compare it with what your backups actually do.

Two numbers that drive everything

Recovery time: how long you can be without a system before it hurts the business. Recovery point: how much recent data you can afford to lose, such as the last hour, the last day, or the last week.

Step 1: List your systems

Step 2: Set the targets for each

For every system above, write down how long you could be without it, and how much data you could lose. Be honest. Your most important systems should have the shortest times.

Step 3: Check the basics

• Backups run automatically, with alerts when one fails
• Important cloud data (email, files, applications) is backed up separately, not assumed safe
• At least one copy is kept somewhere an attacker on your network cannot reach or delete
• Backups are encrypted
• Backups include servers, workstations that hold critical data, and your configuration

A simple rule of thumb

Keep three copies of important data, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy kept away from your main location. Many organizations use this “3-2-1” approach as a starting point.

Step 4: Test it

Schedule a restore test at least twice a year. Restore a file, then a folder, then, at least once, an entire system, and time how long it takes. Compare the result with your targets.

Step 5: Plan for the bad day

Write down who is in charge during a recovery, which systems come back first, how people will work in the meantime, and who tells customers what is happening.