Most businesses think they’re backed up — right up until they need to restore and find out they’re not. The common traps are relying on file sync like OneDrive, or having a backup nobody has ever tested. Here’s a simple rule that genuinely protects you.
The 3-2-1 rule
Keep 3 copies of your important data, on 2 different types of storage, with 1 copy kept off-site (or in the cloud). If one fails — a dead drive, a theft, a fire, ransomware — you still have a clean copy to restore from.
Why OneDrive (on its own) isn’t a backup
File sync is brilliant, but it syncs problems too. If a file is deleted, corrupted, or encrypted by ransomware, that change syncs to the cloud and your other devices within seconds. Yes, there’s limited version history, but it’s not built to recover a whole business after a serious incident. Sync keeps your files with you; a backup lets you go back in time to before things went wrong.
What a proper business backup covers
- Microsoft 365 data — email, SharePoint and OneDrive genuinely backed up (Microsoft protects the service, not your data from your own mistakes).
- Servers and local files, where you still have them.
- A clear retention period, so you can go back days, weeks or months.
- Protection against ransomware, with copies that attackers can’t reach and encrypt.
The part everyone skips: testing
A backup you’ve never restored from is just a hope. The only way to know it works is to test a restore. Good managed backup is monitored and tested regularly, so there are no nasty surprises on the worst day.
A quick self-check
Ask yourself: if your main computer or server died tonight, how much work would you lose, and how long would you be down? If you’re not confident of the answer, you’ve found a gap.
Want to know your backups would actually save you? Book a backup review. We’ll check what you’ve got, fix the gaps, and set up backups that are monitored and tested — so you know your data is genuinely recoverable.