Image-level server backups, M365 mailbox protection, and offsite copies in the cloud. Restores tested before disaster strikes - not when you're learning the hard way that your tape backups stopped working two years ago.
A backup you've never tested isn't a backup - it's a hope. Our setup gets verified, monitored, and rehearsed before the day you actually need it.
Full system images of every server - not just files. Recover an entire box to bare metal or a virtual machine when needed.
Microsoft's retention policies aren't a backup. We protect mail, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams data with proper third-party backup retention.
Local backups are fast for restores; cloud copies survive ransomware, fire, and theft. We do both - so you have speed and durability.
Critical user workstations can be backed up too. Useful when local files matter or when bringing back a stolen/dead laptop quickly.
Failed backup jobs flagged the same day they fail - not discovered weeks later when something needs restoring.
Periodic test restores verify backups actually work. The first time you restore a server should never be during a real incident.
Most backups fail silently. The job runs, the log says success, the file count looks right - and three years later when ransomware hits, the restore fails because the agent stopped working in 2023 and nobody noticed. The difference between backup and recovery is testing. Without testing, it's just expensive storage.
A surprising number of businesses think Microsoft 365 backs up their data. It doesn't, not in the way you mean. Microsoft has retention policies (30 days, 90 days, etc.) but no point-in-time restore for accidentally deleted mail from a year ago, no protection from a malicious admin, and no recovery from the kind of mass deletion that happens during a compromise.
Third-party M365 backup is one of the highest-leverage protections you can add. Most clients are surprised to learn it isn't already part of their tenant.
File-level backups copy your data files. Image-level backups copy the entire system - operating system, applications, configurations, and data. When you need to restore, file-level means rebuilding the server from scratch and copying the files back (hours to days). Image-level means restoring the whole machine as it was (often under an hour). For business-critical servers, image-level is the right answer.
Depends on what's broken and how it's backed up. Local restore from image-level backup: typically under an hour for a single server. Restore from offsite cloud: longer, depending on data volume and your bandwidth. We design backup strategies around what your actual business can tolerate - some clients need under an hour, others can absorb 24 hours of downtime if it saves on cost. The honest conversation about RTO is part of the design.
Yes - if you're not careful. Ransomware attacks now specifically target backup systems. We mitigate this with offsite copies that are isolated from your network (immutable cloud storage), short retention on the local backup with longer retention offsite, and EDR on the backup server to detect tampering. The combination means even if ransomware encrypts your local backups, the offsite copies remain clean.
For most servers - hourly incrementals, daily fulls, kept for 30 days locally, 90+ days offsite. For workstations - daily, kept for 30 days. For M365 - continuous protection with multi-year retention. The right schedule depends on how much data loss your business can tolerate. We design around what you can actually live without, not a generic template.
Yes - we do this regularly. Most takeover situations involve replacing legacy backup systems (Datto BCDR, old Veeam deployments, file-level tools that should have been retired) with modern image-level cloud-tiered backup. The migration is non-disruptive and we keep the old backups available for restore until we're confident the new system has full coverage.
Less than most people expect, when you account for the time you'd spend monitoring backup jobs and testing restores yourself. Most small businesses end up either overspending on a complex solution they don't need or underspending on something that doesn't actually work. The right setup for your firm is whatever covers the actual risk - we'll size it to your environment and your tolerance for downtime, not to a generic template.
Tell me about your environment. I'll do an honest assessment - no obligation, no sales theatre.