Backups are the safety net under everything else. If an attack, a failure or a mistake takes your files, a good backup is the difference between an inconvenient afternoon and a threat to the business. Cloud backup for business copies your data to a secure remote location automatically. Before you start, consider the following.
1. What needs backing up
List the systems and data that matter: file servers, databases, line of business applications, laptops that hold unique files and cloud data such as email and SharePoint. A common gap is cloud services. Microsoft 365 backup is needed because Microsoft does not restore everything you delete or lose.
2. How often
Frequency depends on how much work you could afford to redo. That is your recovery point objective. Accounting data may need hourly backups, while archived documents need daily or weekly. Our disaster recovery plan guide explains RTO vs RPO.
3. How fast you must recover
The recovery time objective is how long you can be without a system. Restoring terabytes over a normal connection can take days. For critical systems you may need local copies for speed plus cloud copies for safety.
4. Where the data goes
Choose a provider with data centres in Canada if your clients or regulations expect it. Confirm encryption in transit and at rest, who holds the keys and how access is controlled.
5. Protection from ransomware
Attackers look for backups and delete or encrypt them. Good ransomware protection includes copies that cannot be changed (immutable storage), separate credentials and multi-factor authentication on the backup console.
6. Retention
Decide how long to keep versions. Longer retention helps recover from problems discovered late, but costs more and may conflict with privacy rules requiring deletion.
7. Testing
A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a plan. Test regularly, document results and time how long a restore really takes.
8. Monitoring
Someone should check that jobs succeed and act on failures. Unmonitored backups quietly fail.
| Decision | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| Scope | What systems and cloud data must be protected? |
| Frequency | How much recent work can we lose? |
| Speed | How long can we be down? |
| Location | Where is the data stored, and is it encrypted? |
| Safety | Can an attacker delete it? |
| Proof | When did we last restore? |
Azure and hybrid options
Businesses running servers in Azure can use Azure backup, while on site servers can send copies to the cloud. Combine local and cloud copies using the classic 3-2-1 approach: three copies, two types of media, one offsite. See our remote backup service and the article on cloud backup redundancy. Good backup and disaster recovery planning ties it all together.
We design, monitor and test backups so you can recover with confidence.
Explore remote backupFrequently asked questions
Is cloud backup safe?
Yes, when data is encrypted, access is controlled and copies cannot be altered by an attacker.
Do I need local backups as well?
For fast recovery of large or critical systems, yes. Use both.
How long does the first backup take?
It depends on data size and connection speed, and may take days for large environments.
Related service: Disaster Recovery
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