Area 08 · Infrastructure and support

Backup

An archive becomes an archive not when it is created but when something is successfully restored from it. We configure backups with recovery in mind, test it regularly and know in advance how many hours it takes to get back to normal.

Test your backups What we do

3-2-1

the rule of three copies

Monthly

a test restore

Off site

a second storage location

The plan

for an outage

What the area consists of

Three services answer three questions: what to back up with, where to keep it and what to do on the day everything fails.

Discuss the scheme

Backup configuration

We define what has to be saved: accounting databases, file shares, device configurations, email. We set the frequency, the retention and the alerts so a failed job does not slip past unnoticed.

Cloud backup

The copy leaves the building and settles on a separate site with its own credentials. Neither a fire, nor stolen equipment, nor malware inside the perimeter can reach it.

Backup and recovery strategy

A document setting out, for each system, the acceptable downtime, the acceptable data loss, who does what and in which order. That is what people turn to during an outage instead of inventing solutions on the spot.

The two numbers everything depends on

Before choosing a tool you need two numbers for each system: how many hours it may be down and how much data loss you can live with.

Accounting databases

Downtime up to four hours, data loss within an hour. A single nightly backup is not enough; frequent transaction log snapshots are needed.

Shared folders

Downtime up to a day, data loss within a day. A single overnight backup outside working hours is enough.

Work email

Downtime up to four hours, data loss within an hour. The database backup is supplemented by a separate mail archive.

The website and the shop

Downtime no more than an hour, data loss within an hour. Meeting that target is impossible without a prepared standby site.

Staff computers

Downtime up to a day, data loss within a day. Achievable only if the documents are not kept on the workstation itself.

Something saved on the same hardware does not count as a backup. A failed drive, malware or an accidental deletion will destroy it along with the original. The working minimum is two copies on different media and one outside the building.

How the setup goes

The setup itself takes a few days, but the value appears at the fourth stage, which is the one most often skipped.

We find what needs backing up

We establish where the valuable data actually lives. We regularly find accounting databases on employees' personal machines and files that exist only as email attachments.

We work out the targets

Together we fix the maximum downtime and acceptable loss for each system. Those two numbers are what set the cost of the solution.

We configure and store

The frequency, the retention, encryption and a secondary site. We configure alerts for both outcomes: success and failure.

We verify by restoring

Every month we restore the backup on a separate rig and time it. There is simply no other proof that it works.

Questions and answers

The point is not whether you have backups but when you last restored from one. In our experience a fair share of supposedly configured schemes do not work: the job has been failing for months, the wrong folder is being saved, the file is locked with a forgotten password. Such a check takes a day and costs little.

Only if it cannot be reached from the same network with the same credentials. Modern malware deliberately hunts for backups. That is why you need a copy on a separate site, with its own permissions and immutability enabled.

The typical scheme: daily copies for two weeks, weekly for about two months, monthly for a year. That depth helps not only when hardware fails but also with a mistake discovered weeks later. For the finance department the periods are usually set longer.

It depends on the size of the data and the bandwidth. A fifty-gigabyte database restores from a local drive in an hour and a half, and noticeably longer from a remote site. We get the exact figure during a test restore and write it into the procedure so you know it in advance.

Related by task

Browse the catalogue

Area 02 Support levels and SLA Who restores service and how quickly Area 03 System administration Regular testing of the backups Area 07 Cloud services and hosting Storage billed by the space used Area 09 Information security Protection against ransomware encryption

We will check whether your backups restore

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Phone
8 (777) 121 5771

Email
office@apply.kz

Office
Almaty, Bukhar Zhyrau boulevard, 62B

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