TIME TO READ: 6 MINUTES
Why Take a Backup Test Now?
As too many U.S. businesses experienced, a wave of cyberattacks accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. Now we're looking at a new wave of cyberattacks in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
The plain truth is, without secured backups you keep outside your company network, your company's a sitting duck!
With that in mind, how would you 'rate' your current backups? Do your backup systems follow the best safety practices available? Will they stand up to a cyberattack?
Let's do a quick test to find out. It takes just 5 minutes.
The Backup Test – 5 Minutes, Business-Saving Value
For each question, select the answer that best fits your company's backup routine (to the best of your knowledge). You can tally up the points earned at the end, and assess how reliable your backups would be in an emergency.
THE BACKUP TEST
PART 1: BACKUPS FOR ON-PREMISE SERVERS & WORKSTATIONS
What type of backups does your company use for onsite servers & workstations?
| Cloud backups of all critical servers and workstations | 15 points |
| Local system backups – Windows Backup, Veeam, other whole-disk contents | 3 points |
| Device backups – Services like iCloud, Time Machine, Windows 10 File History | 1 point |
| USB drives | 1 point |
| None / I don't know | 0 points |
| YOUR TOTAL POINTS | |
PART 2: YOUR CLOUD BACKUP FEATURES
If you have a cloud backup solution, does it do any of the following?
| Offer two sets of cloud backups in geographically separate datacenters | 2 points |
| Include encryption, versioning, and 30+ days of backup history | 2 points |
| Provide health check/verification that the backups are viable | 1 point |
| Include a test restore function | 2 points |
| Check for corrupted data and/or malware | 2 points |
| Include a technician-performed monthly file test restore | 2 points |
| Provide an annual full backup restore test | 5 points |
| YOUR TOTAL POINTS | |
PART 3: BACKUPS FOR CLOUD SERVERS & APPLICATIONS
Do your backups include files within these cloud services?
| Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace (third-party required) | 3 points |
| AWS / Microsoft Azure / other hosted services | 3 points |
| Cloud-based applications (Box, Confluence, Bitbucket, BambooHR, etc.) | 3 points |
| Extra credit: If your fileshare backups include the “Shared Files” folder | 1 point |
| No backups | 0 points |
| YOUR TOTAL POINTS | |
PART 4: NETWORK HARDWARE BACKUPS
Do you maintain backups of your network hardware configurations?
| Backup of firewall configurations | 2 points |
| Backup of switch network configurations | 3 points |
| No backups of network configurations | 0 points |
| YOUR TOTAL POINTS | |
Add up the points from your responses.
25+: Excellent backup integrity. Awesome! Your backups are solid, stable, and secure. You're prepared for just about any emergency the world can throw at your company.
15-25: Passing backup integrity. You're in a good place as far as backups go. If you're a small company, your data should be OK if an emergency hits.
Less than 15: Uh oh! Your company has low/no backup integrity. Please contact your IT Department or consultants to improve backups.
Plan for safe, secure IT in 2022. Take the steps you need to protect your network. Contact us at sales@planetmagpie.com for backup testing or setup.