Backup & Disaster Recovery
Nothing important gets lost.
Backup and disaster recovery means keeping copies of your data that can actually be restored, plus a written plan for getting your organization working again afterwards. happier IT builds and runs both for Canadian organizations of roughly 15 to 200 people. The tested restore is the part that proves the rest.
Who it's for
The gap is almost never “we have no backup”.
Nearly everyone has something. The gap sits between having a backup and being able to prove it would work.
You have file sync and think it is backup. OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive are excellent at keeping files in step across devices. That is the catch: when a file is deleted, they faithfully copy the deletion everywhere too.
Backups run, but nobody checks them. There is a job, it emails someone, and the emails go to a folder. Nobody can say when a restore was last performed.
The copies all live in one place. The backup drive sits beside the server, on the same network behind the same admin password. One event reaches all of them.
Someone has started asking for evidence. An insurance renewal, a client contract, a board question about continuity. The control probably exists; showing it is a separate job.
Sync is not backup
File sync replicates the current state, mistakes included. Backup keeps point-in-time copies you can go back to.
You want both. The second is the one people miss.
What's included
What a proper backup arrangement contains.
Six are technical. The two that make the difference, testing, and a plan somebody wrote down, are not.
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The 3-2-1 principle, in plain English
Three copies of your data, on two different kinds of storage, with one of them somewhere else. It survives the obvious ways a single copy fails.
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An immutable, air-gapped copy
Immutable means the copy cannot be altered or deleted for a set period, even by an administrator. Air-gapped means it sits out of reach of your everyday network, anything reachable from inside can be changed there.
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Microsoft 365 backup
Microsoft runs the service and keeps short-term recycle bins. Under its shared-responsibility model your content stays yours to protect, so we back up Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams separately.
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Server images, not just files
For servers we take image-level backups, the whole machine, so a failed one can be rebuilt, or run temporarily from the backup, rather than reinstalled from scratch.
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Tested restores, on a schedule
We restore real data on a set cadence, record what came back and how long it took, and send you the result. Until then, a backup is an assumption.
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RTO and RPO agreed per system
RTO is your recovery time objective, how long you can be without a system. RPO is your recovery point objective, how much recent work you could bear to re-enter.
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A written disaster recovery plan
Who declares it, who calls whom, where people work, which systems come back first. A plan stored on the server that is down is not a plan.
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Reporting you can hand to an insurer
Jobs are watched daily and failures chased the same day. You get a report of what ran and what was restored.
How it works
From “we think it is fine” to “we know it is”.
Most of it is decisions rather than technology.
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Find out what would actually be lost
We list your systems and ask a business question about each: if this were gone this morning, what stops? That produces the recovery numbers, and usually surfaces two systems nobody had thought about.
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Fix the copies
Backups configured to the 3-2-1 principle, the offsite copy made immutable, Microsoft 365 included. Retention set to a period you chose rather than inherited. Monitoring on, so a failed job reaches a person.
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Test it, then write the plan down
We run a restore and time it. Then the plan gets written, shared with the people named in it, and reviewed on a schedule.
What it costs
Priced on how much data, and how fast you need it back.
Two things move the number: the volume you are protecting and the recovery speed you asked for.
This normally sits inside a managed IT agreement Bought on its own, it is priced on:
- How much data. Storage is the base cost, immutable offsite storage more so, and retention length multiplies it. Keeping everything forever has a price tag.
- How fast you need to be running. A four-hour target needs a local appliance able to run your server temporarily. A next-business-day target does not, and for some organizations that is right.
- How many systems, and how awkward. Standard servers and Microsoft 365 are routine. An old database that must be stopped to be copied cleanly takes more design.
We would rather agree a slower target you can afford than sell a fast one and watch it get cancelled next year.
What we will not do
We will not use a bad day, real or imagined, to sell you something. If your backup is sound, the honest outcome of our review is a short report saying so.
The free IT assessment includes a look at your backups either way.
Why us for this
The restore is the product.
Backup software is a commodity. Every provider in Canada can buy broadly the same tools, so the vendor logo tells you little. What differs is whether anyone has pressed restore before the day it counted.
happier IT watches backup jobs from its own security operations centre in Canada, our own employees, not a subcontracted platform. A failed backup is treated as an event rather than a line in a log. Hours the centre is staffed: 24/7, with the Surrey office on Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific.
Go deeper
- RTO and RPO explained The two numbers every recovery plan needs.
- What is a disaster recovery plan? What goes in one, in plain English.
- Ransomware protection Why the offsite copy is kept out of reach.
Questions
What people ask before they sign anything.
Isn’t OneDrive already a backup?
No. OneDrive is file sync, which is a different job. Sync keeps files identical across devices, so a deletion is copied everywhere within seconds. Version history will save you from a mistake noticed quickly, but not from something found three months later. Keep the sync, add a backup.
Does Microsoft back up our email?
Not in the sense most people mean. Microsoft keeps the service running and recovers from its own failures; your content stays yours to protect, and its service agreement recommends keeping a separate copy. Default windows such as 93 days for deleted files are recycle bins. This is the gap we find most often.
What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?
Three copies of your data, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy somewhere else. Three copies mean one failure does not leave you with nothing. Two storage types mean one product fault does not take them all. The offsite copy covers a problem in your building.
How do you know the backups actually work?
Because we restore from them on a schedule and record the result. A dashboard tells you a job finished, not that the data is usable. Our tests take real files and, for servers, boot the backed-up machine in an isolated environment to confirm it starts.
How long would it take to get us running again?
It depends on the system, which is why each gets its own target. A server that can start from a local backup appliance is usable in hours; rebuilding from an offsite copy takes longer, because the limit is bandwidth. Agreeing RTO and RPO, recovery time and recovery point objectives, up front means you set the numbers.
What about the data in our accounting or job-management software?
It needs its own answer, and it is the most commonly missed item. If a vendor hosts it, ask two questions in writing: what they retain, and how you would get a usable copy back if data were deleted in error. Some vendors keep excellent backups and offer no easy export.
Do we need a written recovery plan, or is the backup enough?
You need both, and the plan is the cheaper half. The backup answers whether the data comes back. The plan answers everything else: who decides, who tells staff and clients, which systems come back first, and who calls the insurer. Renewals now ask whether you have one.
Related
Where to go next.
Want to know what this would look like for you?
A 30-minute call. No slides, no audit fee, no obligation. We ask what is breaking and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.