HSM IT ServicesBackup and Disaster Recovery
Tested, protected backups and a recovery plan that brings your business back after any disruption. Our Backup and Disaster Recovery protects your servers, workstations and Microsoft 365 data with secure, monitored and regularly tested backups. We design recovery plans around how long your business can afford to be down, so a ransomware attack, hardware failure or site disaster does not become a permanent loss.
A backup is only valuable if it can be restored when you need it. Many organizations discover during a crisis that backups stopped running months ago, never included key systems, or were encrypted by the same ransomware that hit production. Our Backup and Disaster Recovery is built to avoid those surprises. We identify what needs protecting, how much data you can afford to lose and how quickly each system must be back, then design backups to match.
Our approach follows the widely used 3-2-1 principle: multiple copies, on different media, with at least one stored off site. Backups are protected with immutability or isolation so attackers with administrative access cannot delete them. Microsoft 365 data, which Microsoft does not back up in the way most people assume, is included. Every backup job is monitored, failures are investigated, and restore tests are performed on a schedule rather than assumed.
Disaster recovery goes beyond data. Fire, flooding, extended power loss or a regional outage can take an entire office offline. We help you document a recovery plan that sets priorities, assigns responsibilities and describes how staff will keep working, whether from cloud resources, an alternate site or home. The plan aligns with the Recover function of NIST CSF 2.0 and is reviewed with you so it reflects how your organization actually operates.
What is included
- Backup design based on recovery time and recovery point needs
- Server, workstation and virtual machine backup
- Microsoft 365 mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams backup
- Immutable or isolated copies protected from ransomware
- Encrypted off-site and Canadian cloud storage options
- Daily backup monitoring and failure follow-up
- Scheduled restore testing with documented results
- Written disaster recovery plan and tabletop review
How it works
Assess
We identify critical systems and data and agree on acceptable downtime and data loss for each.
Design
We select backup methods, storage locations and protections that meet those targets.
Protect
We deploy and monitor backups, resolving failures and keeping coverage current as systems change.
Test
We perform restore tests and walk through the recovery plan with your team to confirm it works.
Who it is for
Backup and Disaster Recovery is essential for any organization that would struggle to operate without its files, email or line-of-business applications. It is especially important for health custodians and professional firms with record-keeping obligations, businesses running an on-site server, and organizations whose current backup is an external drive or a sync service that has never been tested with a real restore.
Questions we hear
Does Microsoft back up our Microsoft 365 data?
Microsoft keeps its service running and offers limited retention features, such as recycle bins and version history, but it is not a full backup service designed for long-term restore or protection against malicious deletion. A dedicated Microsoft 365 backup keeps independent copies of mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams data, so you can recover items or entire accounts when needed.
How often should backups be tested?
Testing frequency depends on how critical the data is and how often systems change, but backups should be tested regularly, not only after something breaks. HSM IT Services performs scheduled restore tests for files, systems and Microsoft 365 data, records the results and fixes any problems found, so you have evidence that recovery will work.
Can ransomware encrypt our backups?
It can if the backups are reachable with the same credentials attackers steal, which is a common weakness. HSM IT Services uses immutable storage, separate credentials and isolated copies so that backup data cannot be changed or deleted from your production network. We also monitor for suspicious changes to backup jobs and settings.