Building Backup and Disaster Recovery From Zero
Problem
No backup or disaster recovery coverage existed for file servers, databases, or phone system infrastructure, so a single failure anywhere meant unrecoverable data loss.
Outcome
A fully automated, alerted, and annually-tested backup solution with a maximum 8-hour recovery point across every critical system.
Designed and implemented a full on-prem backup and disaster recovery solution for an organization that had none, covering file servers, databases, and network infrastructure, with automated alerting and annual restore testing.
The Problem
This organization had no backup or disaster recovery solution in place at all, for anything. File server data, database backups, and even the configuration for the Cisco phone switch powering the organization’s phone system existed in exactly one place: production. There was no restore path if a server failed, no way to recover a database after corruption or accidental deletion, and no way to bring the phone system back online quickly if the switch configuration was ever lost. Every one of these systems represented a single point of failure with no fallback.
The Approach
We designed and built a complete on-prem backup solution from the ground up using Windows Server Backup, covering all three at-risk areas: file server data, database backups, and phone switch configurations. Backup jobs ran on an 8-hour cycle, keeping the maximum possible data loss window small regardless of when an incident occurred.
Reliability couldn’t depend on someone remembering to check that backups actually ran, so we built automated email alerting to flag any job that failed to complete or any data that failed to replicate, giving the team immediate visibility into problems instead of discovering a failed backup only when it was needed for a real recovery.
The solution was fully documented from the start, and documentation alone wasn’t treated as sufficient. We built and ran a full disaster recovery test annually, actually restoring from backup and validating the process end to end, rather than assuming untested backups would work when it mattered.
The Outcome
The organization went from zero backup coverage and unlimited data loss exposure to a fully documented, automated system with a maximum 8-hour recovery point across every critical system: file server, databases, and phone infrastructure. Automated failure alerts meant backup problems surfaced immediately instead of silently, and the annual restore testing meant the disaster recovery plan was a proven, working process, not just a document sitting untested on a shelf.
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