Server & endpoint backup · Burlington, Ontario
Server and Endpoint Backup for Burlington Organizations
Backup is the raw material recovery depends on, not a recovery plan by itself. We design backup jobs against a stated recovery point objective, verify them, and replicate them offsite so a copy exists outside the environment it protects.
What this covers
- Recovery point objective agreed before jobs are built
- Local and offsite copies, following the 3-2-1 principle
- Encryption in transit and at rest
- Automated success verification, not silent failure
- Coverage for physical and virtual servers plus endpoints
01What backup actually is
A copy of data, not a recovery capability
Backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity are frequently used as synonyms. They are not, and confusing them is where recovery plans fail under pressure.
Backup answers one question: does a restorable copy of this data exist from a known point in time? Disaster recovery answers a broader question — can the systems that depend on that data be brought back into operation, in what order, and how quickly? Business continuity is broader again, covering people, premises, suppliers and communication, not only technology. NIST SP 800-34 treats these as related but distinct plans for exactly this reason.
A backup job that completes is not the same as a backup job that is recoverable. We build jobs against a defined recovery point objective — the maximum data loss your organization can tolerate, expressed in time — and treat any job that cannot meet it as a defect to correct, not a metric to report around.
Immutable and offsite copies protect the backup itself from the same event that threatens production, including ransomware that specifically targets backup repositories before encrypting live data.
02What is protected
Backup scope
Coverage across the systems Burlington organizations depend on daily.
- Physical Windows and Linux servers
- Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines
- Laptop and desktop endpoints
- Application-consistent database backups
- File servers and shared storage
- Domain controllers and directory services
- Immutable, air-gapped repository copies
- Offsite and cloud replication
- Encryption in transit and at rest
- Automated job monitoring and alerting
- Retention policies matched to compliance need
- Granular and full-system restore options
03How reliability is maintained
From job completion to verified recovery
A backup dashboard showing green is not evidence of recoverability. Verification is.
Recovery point objective
Backup frequency is set by how much data loss the business can absorb, not by default scheduling in the backup software.
3-2-1 replication
Three copies of data, on two different media, with one held offsite, so a single site event does not remove every copy at once.
Immutable repositories
Backup copies that cannot be altered or deleted for a defined retention window, closing the gap ransomware operators exploit when they target backup infrastructure first.
Failure escalation
Failed or skipped jobs are ticketed and worked the same day, not reviewed at month end when the gap has already grown.
Retention aligned to obligation
Retention periods reflect regulatory, contractual and operational need rather than a single default across every data type.
Restore testing
Sample restores are performed on a schedule, so the first time a restore is attempted is not during an actual incident.
FAQCommon questions
Questions Burlington organizations ask
Is backup the same as disaster recovery?
No. Backup is a copy of data at a point in time. Disaster recovery is the plan and infrastructure to bring systems back into operation, including which servers restore first and in what order. Backup is a necessary input to disaster recovery, not a substitute for it.
How often are our servers backed up?
Frequency is set against your recovery point objective — the maximum acceptable data loss expressed in time. Many systems run hourly incremental backups with daily full verification; some critical databases run more frequently. This is agreed before jobs are built, not defaulted.
Can ransomware reach our backups too?
That is precisely why immutable and air-gapped copies matter. Attackers routinely target backup repositories first, because deleting recovery options increases pressure to pay. Immutable storage prevents backup data from being altered or deleted within its retention window even by an account with administrative access.
Where are backup copies stored?
Following the 3-2-1 principle, at least one copy is held offsite from your primary location, either in a separate data centre region or a cloud repository, so a site-level event does not remove every available copy.
NEXTRelated capabilities
Backup is the foundation, not the finish line
A recoverable backup is only useful if a disaster recovery plan exists to act on it.
Providing Two Decades of IT Experience
Request an IT assessment for your Burlington organization
We review your current environment, security posture, cloud footprint and support model, then outline what to fix first and what it should cost.