Backup and recovery
How far back should your backups go?
A backup is only useful if it goes back far enough to reach a time before the problem started.
1 min readExplainer
The short version
Some problems are noticed the next day. Others take months. Retention decides whether the right version still exists when you look.
Why it matters
Not every problem is noticed straight away:
- A spreadsheet is quietly corrupted, and nobody opens it until the year-end close.
- An employee deletes a folder before leaving, and it is missed three months later.
- Attackers sit inside a network for weeks before striking, and early backups may already contain their tools.
If backups only go back 14 days, anything older is gone.
A common pattern
Many businesses keep:
- Daily backups for a few weeks,
- Weekly backups for a few months,
- Monthly backups for a year or more.
This gives fine detail for recent problems and a longer reach for slow ones, without storing every day forever.
What decides the right answer
- How quickly problems are usually noticed in your business.
- Legal and contract requirements for keeping certain records.
- Cost: longer retention means more storage.
What to check
- How far back can you restore your file server, email and accounting today?
- Does that match how long it might take to notice a problem?
Talk to us about your technology
Tell us what you run today and what is getting in the way. We will get back to you about how we can help.