Why Every Business Needs Proper Backups

What you are protecting against

• Ransomware encrypting every file the network can reach
• Accidental deletion by a staff member
• Malicious deletion by a departing employee
• Hardware failure on servers, laptops, and NAS devices
• Software corruption in a critical application
• Cloud service misconfiguration or account compromise
• Fire, flood, theft, and physical damage

The cloud myth

Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox, and other cloud platforms protect their infrastructure, not your data. Their terms of service state clearly that customers are responsible for backing up their own content. When a user deletes a mailbox, empties SharePoint, or a compromised account wipes shared files, the cloud provider has no obligation to restore it beyond a short built-in retention window.

This is why Microsoft 365 backup as a separate paid service exists at all. Every serious MSP includes it in a modern backup plan.

The 3-2-1 rule

The industry standard for business backup is simple and still effective. Every business should have at least:

• 3 copies of important data
• 2 different storage types (for example local + cloud)
• 1 copy stored off-site and protected from the network

What proper business backup includes

How often to back up

For most Sudbury small businesses, we recommend workstations and servers back up at least once per day, and Microsoft 365 at least three times per day. Businesses with heavier data change rates should move to hourly backups. The right number is whatever matches how much data you can afford to lose if the incident happens at the worst moment of the day.

Frequently asked questions