Managed IT
Recovery you have tested, not recovery you hope for.
Backup, immutable storage, disaster recovery and business continuity planning, with restores rehearsed on a schedule.
Sound familiar
Where this usually starts.
Backups are judged by restores. We design protection from the recovery objectives the business can tolerate, how much data it can lose and how long it can be down, then implement backups that ransomware cannot reach, replicate what has to fail over, and rehearse recovery on a schedule so the first real restore is not the first restore.
Scope
What is included.
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Recovery objectives
Recovery point and recovery time objectives agreed with the business for each system.
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Backup design
Servers, virtual machines, databases, cloud and SaaS data, protected to those objectives.
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Immutable copies
Offline or immutable storage that ransomware and stolen credentials cannot delete.
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Disaster recovery
Replication and failover to a second site or a cloud region.
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Restore testing
Scheduled restores and full recovery rehearsals, with the results recorded.
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Continuity planning
Runbooks, contact trees and decision rights for a real disaster.
Reference architecture
IT that is watched, fixed and reported on before it is noticed.
Backup and recovery form the assurance layer of the managed IT architecture: protected copies of servers, cloud and SaaS data, with off-site and immutable copies that survive the loss of the site or the credentials that run it.
What this service delivers here
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Backup
Data copied off every device and service, on a schedule you agreed.
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Off-site copies
Immutable copies held apart from production, out of reach of ransomware.
Before you start
Decisions to settle early.
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How much loss each system can bear
Tighter objectives cost more to meet. Each system's owner decides what downtime and data loss really cost the business.
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Second site or cloud recovery
A standby site recovers fastest but costs most; a cloud region costs little until it is used. The objectives decide.
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Who holds the keys to the backups
Backups protected by the same accounts as production fall together. Separate credentials and immutability decide whether the copy survives.
Approach
How the work runs.
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Define
Recovery objectives for each system
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Protect
Backups, immutability and replication
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Rehearse
Restores and failovers on a schedule
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Report
Evidence of every test
Commercials
How it is bought.
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A fixed-fee assessment
We review what is backed up, where copies live, who can delete them and when a restore was last tested, then restore a sample system. You receive the findings and a fixed price for remediation.
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A fixed-price build
Agreed recovery objectives, the redesigned backup architecture, immutable and off-site copies, replication for critical systems and runbooks, at a fixed price.
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Running it afterwards
Protection then runs monthly: monitoring every job, scheduled restore tests and recovery rehearsals, with the evidence recorded for audit.
Start with the assessment.
Worked example
Backups that had never been restored.
Say a logistics company backs up its servers every night to an appliance on the same network, with the same administrator accounts. Nobody has tested a full restore, and ransomware has just hit a competitor.
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Define
We agree with each system's owner the data loss and downtime it can tolerate, starting with dispatch and billing.
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Protect
Backups are rebuilt to those objectives, with an immutable copy that the production administrator accounts cannot delete.
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Replicate
The systems the business cannot run without are replicated to a cloud region, so they can be started there if the site is lost.
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Rehearse
Restores are tested on a schedule, and a full recovery of dispatch is rehearsed with the operations team timing it.
At the end, the company knows how long recovery takes because it has done it, and an attack on the production network cannot reach the copy it would need.
An illustration
Where it goes wrong
What we design out.
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Backups an attacker can delete
Copies reachable with production credentials disappear in a ransomware attack. At least one copy is immutable or offline.
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Never restoring anything
An untested backup is a hope. Restores are rehearsed on a schedule and timed.
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Assuming SaaS is protected
Most SaaS providers protect their service, not your data from deletion or attack. SaaS data is backed up like any other system.
Outcomes
What it changes.
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Ransomware is survivable
Immutable copies mean an attacker who encrypts production cannot also destroy the way back.
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Recovery times that are known
Rehearsals measure how long recovery actually takes, so the objective is a fact rather than a hope.
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Evidence for auditors and insurers
Test results answer the questions cyber insurers and auditors now ask.
How you will know it is working
- You know how long each critical system takes to recover, because it has been done.
- At least one copy sits beyond the reach of production credentials.
- Restore tests are recorded and reviewed.
- Recovery objectives are reflected in the design, not only in a policy.
You keep
What you have at the end.
Handover pack
five items
- Recovery objectives for each system The data loss and downtime each system can tolerate, agreed with the person who owns it.
- Backup and disaster recovery architecture The design that meets those objectives: backup targets, immutable copies, replication and failover.
- Disaster recovery runbooks Step by step recovery for each system and scenario, in the order the business needs its services back.
- Restore test reports The result of every scheduled restore and rehearsal, with the time it took and anything that failed.
- Business continuity plan Who decides, who is told, and what the business does while its systems are being recovered.
The team
Who you work with.
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Recovery architect
Designs protection to the recovery objectives and owns the recovery runbooks.
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Backup engineers
Run and monitor the jobs, and carry out the scheduled restore tests.
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Continuity adviser
Works with your leadership on decision rights and the continuity plan.
What we need from you
- A list of systems and their business owners.
- Access to the current backup tools and storage.
- Decisions on recovery objectives from people able to make them.
- Time for a recovery rehearsal with the teams involved.
Less firefighting for your own team, because the routine work is already done.
Questions
Questions we get asked.
Does Microsoft back up our Microsoft 365 data?
Microsoft keeps the service available and offers limited retention, but protection against deletion, corruption or ransomware inside your tenant is your responsibility. A separate backup closes that gap.
How often should we test restores?
Individual restores monthly, and a full recovery rehearsal of critical systems at least once a year, more often for systems that change quickly. We schedule both and record the results.
What makes a backup immutable?
Storage that cannot be altered or deleted for a defined retention period, even by an administrator, such as object lock in cloud storage or a hardened backup repository. It is the control that matters most against ransomware.
Can we recover into the cloud?
Yes. A cloud region is often the most economical disaster recovery site, provided the network, identity and licensing are prepared in advance.
What are recovery point and recovery time objectives?
The recovery point objective is how much data a system can afford to lose, measured back from the moment of failure. The recovery time objective is how long it can be unavailable. Together they decide how often a system is backed up, whether it needs replication, and what its protection costs.
Does disaster recovery have to mean a second data center?
No. For many organizations a cloud region is the recovery site, with systems replicated there and started only when needed. The design follows the recovery objectives, and the cost of a standby site is weighed against the cost of the downtime it avoids.
What does the 3-2-1 backup rule mean?
Keep at least three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one copy off site. We add an immutable or offline copy and a tested restore, because a backup that an attacker can delete, or that has never been restored, does not really count.
Who decides to invoke disaster recovery?
Named people in the business continuity plan, agreed in advance, with deputies. Failing over has costs and risks of its own, so the decision belongs to someone with authority, and the plan sets out the information they need to make it quickly.
Ask about your situation
Answered from this site, with its sources.
Where it is bought
Backup and disaster recovery, by sector and region.
Sectors that buy Managed IT
Often paired with
What usually comes next.
- Managed Security
Incident response
A team on call when something goes wrong, and a plan before it does. - Managed IT
Monitoring and network operations
Servers, networks and cloud watched around the clock by a NOC. - Cloud
Hybrid and private cloud
VMware alternatives, private cloud and hybrid estates done properly.
CONTACT
Find out how long recovery really takes.
Start with a recovery assessment and a test restore. You get a written view of what would survive an incident and what would not.
- Senior-led
- Accountable
- Direct
- Fixed-price options
- Compliance-ready
- 24/7 capable
Prefer to talk it through? Call +92 (333) 32 11011
What happens next
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You pick the time
Tell us what you protect today and with which tools; we fit the call to your schedule.
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Thirty minutes, with an engineer
A recovery engineer discusses which systems the business cannot run without.
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A written assessment
It includes the result of a sample restore and a fixed remediation price.