Your Last Line of Defense: Are Your Backups Tested and Battle-Ready?

• Cloud services don’t replace backups. Platforms like Microsoft 365 and other SaaS apps follow a shared responsibility model—while providers secure infrastructure, businesses remain responsible for protecting their own data against accidental deletion, cyberattacks, or insider threats.

• A strong BDR plan goes beyond storage. Effective backup and disaster recovery (BDR) requires clear recovery procedures, defined responsibilities, regular testing, and measurable goals (RTO/RPO) to ensure data can be restored quickly and with minimal disruption.

• Testing backups are a critical component to your business continuity. Backups that aren’t tested are useless. Regular verification, plan updates, and a cloud-first approach ensure your business can recover from natural disasters, cyber incidents, or human error—keeping downtime, costs, and reputational damage under control.

“You don’t need a backup until you need it.” By then, it’s too late.

A Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) plan isn’t optional—it’s the backbone of your business continuity strategy and a critical layer of your overall security posture. But backups are virtually useless if they aren’t tested and ready to use when you need them most. Are you confident that if disaster strikes, your backups are reliable enough to restore your business without missing a beat?

A business continuity plan ensures your organization can maintain operations during and after a disruption, whether it’s a cyberattack, hardware failure, or natural disaster. At its core, business continuity is about resilience—protecting your critical systems, safeguarding data, and minimizing downtime. A strong BDR plan ties directly into this by ensuring your data is recoverable and your operations can resume quickly when the unexpected happens.

Cloud services like Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and Azure may run your business, but if a disaster were to happen, you still need backups.

• Do you have plans for protecting cloud-based data? 

• If you run a hybrid environment, have you tested and verified your on-premises backups so they can be restored?

What Kind of Disasters Are We Talking About?

When most people hear “disaster recovery,” they picture hurricanes, fires, or floods. While natural disasters are still a concern, they’re no longer the most common threat. Today’s disasters are just as likely to be digital as physical—and each one can bring your business operations to a standstill.

• Cyberattacks – Ransomware can lock down your systems in minutes, while phishing or insider threats can wipe out critical data. Without fast recovery, business continuity is impossible.

• Human error – Accidental deletions, misconfigurations, or overwrites are common. Even the best employee can make a mistake that halts workflows.

• Hardware failures – Servers, drives, and network equipment all fail eventually. When they do, downtime directly impacts productivity and profitability.

• Software corruption – A failed update, corrupted database, or system crash can stop teams from accessing the applications they rely on.

The reality? Cyberattacks remain the most likely cause of a data disaster—and any time a human is involved, there’s risk. That’s why cloud backups have become the industry standard: they provide the redundancy, security, and rapid recovery needed to keep your business running, no matter what happens.

Cloud Doesn’t Replace Backup

A common misconception is that moving to the cloud means you don’t need to back up your data. In reality, platforms like Microsoft 365 operate on a shared responsibility model:

• Microsoft protects the infrastructure and keeps the platform available.
• You are responsible for protecting your data.

That means your data in Exchange (Outlook), OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams is still vulnerable to accidental deletion, ransomware, or malicious insiders. Microsoft retains deleted items only for a limited time (usually 30–90 days). For compliance, audits, or long-term needs, you’ll need a dedicated backup solution.

The same applies to other SaaS applications—many CRMs, financial platforms, and line-of-business apps don’t include robust backups. Without a tested recovery plan, your business is still at risk.

Why Cloud Backups Lead the Way

Traditional tape backups and local storage are quickly becoming obsolete because they provide:

• Geographic redundancy
• Automated schedules (less human error)
• Scalability without new hardware
• Enterprise-grade encryption (in transit and at rest)
• Faster recovery times

 What a Strong BDR Plan Includes

A true BDR plan goes beyond simply "backing things up." It ensures that you can recover quickly and fully in the event of any disruption. A comprehensive plan addresses:

• Data location strategy: Cloud, hybrid, or on-premises storage based on your specific needs
• Backup frequency: How often different types of data need to be backed up
• Recovery procedures: Step-by-step processes for different disaster scenarios
• Responsibility matrix: Who does what during an emergency
• Business continuity priorities: Which systems and data are most critical to restore first

A BDR plan isn't something you create once and forget. It should be reviewed and updated regularly as your business evolves; adding new applications, remote work arrangements, and compliance requirements all impact your backup strategy.

RTO and RPO: The Numbers That Matter

The truth is, backups that aren’t tested are worthless. Regular testing confirms that your backups are restorable, data is captured correctly and often enough, recovery works under real-world conditions, and your recovery time commitments are achievable.

Think of it like a fire drill for your data—practice now, so you’re not scrambling later.

Two metrics shape both your recovery strategy and your overall business continuity plan:

• RTO (Recovery Time Objective): How quickly systems must be restored to avoid major disruption.

• RPO (Recovery Point Objective): How much data loss (time) your business can tolerate.

These aren’t just IT benchmarks—they’re business continuity benchmarks. If your RPO is one hour, your continuity plan must ensure backups run hourly. If your RTO is four hours, recovery must happen in under four hours to keep critical operations online. When defined and tested, RTO and RPO turn a BDR plan into a practical, reliable roadmap for maintaining business resilience when disaster strikes.

Managing Risk Through Regular Review and Testing

Every business faces risks, but those that plan, test, and adapt are the ones that survive disasters with minimal impact. Effective risk management requires:

1. Documented procedures: Clear, step-by-step disaster recovery plans that anyone can follow
2. Regular plan updates: Review quarterly to account for new systems, staff changes, and business growth
3. Consistent testing: Monthly verification that backups are complete and restorable
4. Cloud-first approach: Leverage geographic redundancy and professional-grade infrastructure
5. Automated monitoring: Receive alerts when backups fail or testing identifies issues

The goal isn't to eliminate all risk because that's impossible. You want to reduce risk to acceptable levels while ensuring you can recover quickly when something does go wrong. When other security controls fail your ability to quickly restore clean data becomes your last line of defense.

Checking Your Last Line of Defense

Business downtime and lack of access to critical data can quickly translate into lost revenue, lost productivity, and lost customer trust. For most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the impact of prolonged downtime is something you simply cannot afford.

That’s where Proper Sky comes in. With a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution, you can safeguard your data and be confident it will be restored quickly when the unexpected happens.

You can’t predict every disaster, but you can prepare for them. Partner with Proper Sky, and you’ll gain tested backups, proven recovery processes, and the peace of mind that your business can withstand whatever comes your way.

Don’t wait until disaster strikes to find out if your backups work. Let's talk about how to protect your data, minimize downtime, and keep your business moving forward.