Most businesses believe they have backups. Very few have backups they can actually restore from.
This is one of the most dangerous false assumptions in IT.
Backups fail quietly. They do not announce themselves when they stop working. They sit there, looking fine, until the day you need them.
Common reasons backups fail:
They are not monitored
They only back up part of the system
They have never been tested
They rely on credentials that expired
They store data on the same system they protect
A backup that has never been tested is not a backup. It is a hope.
Many businesses also confuse file syncing with backups. Services like OneDrive and Google Drive are not backups. If a file is deleted, encrypted, or overwritten, that change often syncs instantly.
Another common issue is retention. Some backups only keep a few days of history. Ransomware often sits dormant before activating, meaning your “good” backups may already be infected.
A proper backup strategy includes:
Automated monitoring and alerts
Regular test restores
Offsite or immutable storage
Clear retention policies
Documentation on how to restore quickly
Backups are not exciting. They do not improve productivity or generate revenue. But when something goes wrong, they are the difference between a bad day and a business ending event.
If your IT provider cannot show you when your backups were last tested, you should be concerned.
