Defend
Backups and restore tests
A backup you’ve never restored is a hope. We back up your Microsoft 365, servers and devices, restore from the backups on purpose before you need them, and date every test.
A backup you’ve never restored is a hope.
Losing client files to ransomware, a deleted mailbox or a failed disk isn’t an IT problem, it’s a liability: your files have to stay available for the years you’re bound to keep them. And a backup only counts once something has been brought back from it. So we back up Microsoft 365, servers and devices, keep the copies apart from the originals so that one mistake can’t take both, restore from the backups on purpose before you need them, and write the date of every test into your evidence file. That’s what an insurer, a client or an auditor really asks: not whether you have backups, but when you last proved they work.
What we set up
A way back, and the proof that it works.
What is backed up, how often and for how long is agreed with you and written down, so the way back matches what your firm would lose.
-
Microsoft 365, outside the tenant
Mail, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams are copied to a backup outside your tenant, so a deleted mailbox or an emptied site comes back even when Microsoft’s own retention has run out.
-
Apart from the original
The copy lives somewhere else than the system it protects: another place, another account. What deletes the original, by fault or by a wrong click, doesn’t reach the copy.
-
Servers and devices
Servers are backed up as whole machines, so a restore brings back a server that works, not a folder of files. Laptops and workstations are covered too, so a dead disk costs a device, not a project.
-
Restored on purpose
We restore from the backups before you need them: a mailbox, a file, a whole server, on a schedule agreed with you and always before a change that touches the system. The date and the result go on record.
-
Kept as long as you’re bound
Retention is planned for the years your firm has to keep its files, with long-term archiving for email, so a question about a matter from years ago gets a file, not a shrug.
-
Watched, every day
Every backup job is on the monitoring. A job that fails or quietly stops is seen by our engineers, not discovered on the day you need it.
By platform
Where it runs.
Backups differ by what they protect. Your Microsoft 365 tenant and your servers each get their own page.
On record
In your evidence file.
- What is backed up, how often and for how long
- Where each system’s copy lives, and who can reach it
- The date and result of the last restore test, system by system
- Retention periods, as agreed with you
The answer to “when did you last test a restore?”, on the day an insurer or a client asks.
What usually goes wrong without it.
-
Backups nobody has ever restored
The job reports green for years. The first real restore finds a corrupt copy, a missing system or a password nobody has.
-
One tool, one way back
The backup lives in the same tool, under the same account or in the same place as the original. What deletes one deletes both.
-
Microsoft’s retention mistaken for a backup
A deleted mailbox is kept for a while, then gone for good. Retention keeps data from being deleted; it doesn’t give you a copy from a chosen day.
Also under Defend
- Email security Spam, phishing and malware filtered out before a mail reaches anyone, with long-term archiving.
- Multi-factor sign-in A second factor for every account, so a stolen password on its own opens nothing.
- Conditional access Who is signing in, from where and on which device, checked every time.
- Device protection Managed protection and threat detection on every laptop, workstation and server, to a documented baseline.
- Patching and vulnerability management Updates rolled out from one place, and the gaps that remain found and closed.
- Admin access Admin rights for few, by name; passwords in a vault; every use logged. Our own keys first.
- Security monitoring Devices, sign-ins and systems watched centrally; what the monitoring found, reviewed by our engineers, and what we changed.
- Access reviews Who can open what, reviewed with you, so access that made sense last year doesn’t quietly stay.
- Incident response When someone clicks, or a server shows a ransom note: the same sequence every time, ending in the record.
- The evidence file What protects your firm, written down as it is, ready on the day an insurer, a client or an auditor asks.
- Insurer and client questionnaires Your insurer’s and your clients’ security questionnaires, answered with what’s true today, the gaps closed before renewal.
- Changing provider The old provider’s software and access removed, with a written check that nobody keeps a way in.
Questions we get
How often do you test a restore?
On a schedule agreed with you, and always before a change that touches the system: a migration, a switchover, a new server. The date of each test goes into your evidence file, so the question is answered by a record, not a memory.
Isn’t Microsoft 365 already backed up by Microsoft?
Microsoft keeps your data available and holds deleted items for a while. It doesn’t keep a copy from a chosen day that you can go back to, and it doesn’t protect you from a deletion done with a valid account. That’s what a backup outside the tenant is for.
Where do our backups live?
That’s written down in your evidence file, service by service: where each copy lives and who can reach it. The copy lives apart from the original, in another place or under another account, so one mistake can’t take both.
Can you restore a single mail or file, or only everything?
Both. Most restores are one mailbox, one file or one folder someone deleted last week. A whole server or a whole site is the rare case, and the one we test for.
Start
When did you last restore from a backup?
In a first call we go through what’s backed up today, where the copies live, and when a restore was last tested.
- No first level
- No surprises
- Pilot before you buy