Data & Compliance
How often should you back up your data?
Backups are boring — until the day they save your business. Here’s how often to back up, and the rules that make backups actually work.
Greater Manchester & UK-wide · free, no-obligation advice
Why Foresight
- Cyber Essentials Plus certified
- Supporting 130+ organisations since 2006
- We reply within one working hour
- Plain-English, no jargon
Quick answer
For most businesses, back up at least daily — and for critical systems, continuously or several times a day. The real question is how much data you can afford to lose: that’s your “recovery point”. A daily backup means up to a day’s work at risk; hourly means up to an hour. Just as important as frequency are the 3-2-1 rule (three copies, two types of media, one offsite), keeping a copy offline or immutable so ransomware can’t reach it, and testing restores regularly — a backup you’ve never tested isn’t really a backup.
How often
Match it to what you can afford to lose
Work out your “recovery point” — the most data you could stand to lose. Daily backups suit many businesses; busy or critical systems (finance, live databases, email) often need continuous or hourly backup. The more the data changes and the more it matters, the more often you back it up.
The rules that matter
Frequency isn’t everything
| Rule | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| 3-2-1 | Three copies, on two types of media, with one offsite — so no single failure wipes you out |
| Offline / immutable copy | Ransomware now targets backups; a copy it can’t reach or change is your lifeline |
| Test your restores | A backup you’ve never restored from may not work when you need it |
| Back up Microsoft 365 | Microsoft doesn’t fully back up your data for you — you need independent backup of Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams |
The Microsoft 365 myth
“It’s in the cloud, so it’s backed up”
One of the most dangerous assumptions out there: Microsoft keeps your service running, but it doesn’t protect you from deletion, ransomware or a departing employee taking data. You need independent Microsoft 365 backup. Our managed backup & disaster recovery covers all of this — with documented test restores so you know it works.
FAQs
Common questions
How often should a business back up its data?
What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?
Does Microsoft 365 back up my data?
Why do I need to test my backups?
How do backups protect against ransomware?
Could you recover tomorrow morning?
We’ll make sure your backups are frequent, offsite, ransomware-proof and tested. See our backup & recovery.