Backup & Disaster Recovery — Preparing for the Inevitable
- John W. Harmon, PhD
- 15 hours ago
- 2 min read
Ask any IT professional who’s been through a real-world data loss event, and they’ll tell you the same thing: Backups aren’t about whether you have them — they’re about whether they work.
It’s not a matter of if your systems will go down. It’s when, how bad, and how fast you can recover. Ransomware. Hardware failure. Accidental deletion. Fire. Theft. Compliance audit. These aren’t rare events — they’re realities every business will face at some point.
And for small and mid-sized businesses, one major failure — with no working recovery — is often the end.
Why Most Backup Strategies Fail When You Need Them Most
At Computer Solutions, we’ve conducted hundreds of post-incident reviews for businesses that thought they were protected. Common failures we’ve seen:
Backups that were stored on the same server — and encrypted by ransomware
“Scheduled backups” that silently failed for 11 months due to permissions errors
Cloud backups that were never tested — and couldn’t restore a full server
No disaster recovery plan, so no one knew what to restore or in what order
Backups are only half the story. You also need a tested, documented disaster recovery plan.
What a True BDR (Backup & Disaster Recovery) Strategy Looks Like
Immutable Backups – Snapshots that cannot be changed, encrypted, or deleted by ransomware or rogue administrators.
3-2-1 Backup Rule – Three copies of your data, on two different media, with at least one copy offsite and offline.
RTO/RPO Goals – Define how fast you need systems back online (RTO) and how much data you’re willing to lose (RPO). Most companies don’t even know these metrics exist — until it's too late.
Quarterly Test Restores – If your backup system hasn’t been tested, it’s just a theory. We simulate full environment recovery every quarter for all clients — because we plan for the worst.
Runbooks – Documented instructions for restoring key services like Active Directory, email, QuickBooks, EMR/EHR systems, file servers, and domain controllers — in the right order.
Endpoint Coverage – Workstations and laptops matter too. If a key employee’s laptop dies in the field, do you know exactly what was on it, where it’s backed up, and how long replacement will take?
Your Business Continuity Depends on This
If you're reading this and thinking “we’ve got something that backs up nightly,” that’s not enough. If you don’t know where, how, and how fast it can restore — you’re not protected.
Business owners who assume their MSP, IT guy, or cloud provider has this handled often find out too late that no one was checking.
What You Should Do Right Now
✅ Step 1: Get your free CyberScore report You’ll see if your current backup practices — or lack thereof — are putting your business at risk. app.thecyberscore.com/?id=marioncs
✅ Step 2: Book a 15-minute consultation with Dr. John Let’s walk through your actual environment and discuss how long your business could stay offline — and how we’d change that. https://calendly.com/dr_john/15min