Backup and disaster recovery is the difference between a bad afternoon and a closed business. These are the questions small business owners actually ask us about protecting data, recovering fast, and whether their current backup would survive a ransomware attack.
What is the difference between backup and disaster recovery?
A backup is a copy of your data. Disaster recovery is the plan and the capability to get your whole operation running again after something breaks, systems, applications, and access included. You can have backups and still have no recovery plan, which is how companies end up holding data they cannot actually use for days.
How fast should we expect to recover?
That is set by two targets you choose in advance: your recovery time objective (how long until you are running again) and recovery point objective (how much data you can afford to lose). A retail shop might accept a few hours. A medical practice might need minutes. Tighter targets cost more, so match them to what downtime actually costs you.
Will my backups protect me from ransomware?
Only if they are isolated. Modern ransomware hunts for backups first. Research from VikingCloud found that 96% of ransomware attacks target backup systems. Offline or immutable copies the malware cannot reach are what let you restore instead of paying. A backup sitting on the same network it is meant to protect often gets encrypted too.
What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?
Keep three copies of your data, on two different types of media, with one copy stored offsite or offline. It is the baseline that survives most disasters, from a dead server to a ransomware hit to a flooded office. The offsite or offline copy is the part that saves you when everything on-site is gone or encrypted.
How much does backup and disaster recovery cost?
It ranges widely with how fast you need to recover and how much data you hold. Basic cloud backup for a small office can run a few hundred dollars a year. Full disaster-recovery-as-a-service with fast failover costs more. Weigh it against your downtime cost: VikingCloud found four in ten small businesses say an attack of $100,000 or less would close them for good.
Is cloud storage the same as a backup?
No. A file-sync service like the drive in your Microsoft 365 or Google account mirrors changes, including deletions and encryption, across every device. If ransomware scrambles a file, the scrambled version syncs everywhere. Real backup keeps separate, versioned copies you can roll back to a point in time.
How often should backups run?
As often as your recovery point objective demands. If losing a day of data would hurt, back up at least daily. If you can only lose an hour, run continuous or hourly protection. Critical systems like accounting or patient records usually warrant tighter intervals than a file server nobody touches for weeks.
Do we need to test our backups?
Yes, and it is the step almost everyone skips. A backup you have never restored is a guess. Test restores on a schedule so you find the corrupt file, the missed system, or the too-slow process before a real outage does. This ties into the broader steps in our guide to the security basics that stop attacks.
By The NetSys Group Team. The NetSys Group has delivered managed IT, cybersecurity, and cloud services since 1998. Our engineers hold degrees in electrical and computer engineering and are certified Microsoft and Cisco instructors, serving businesses across NY, NJ, CT, PA, and Southwest Florida.
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