What is the best backup for business
Ask ten IT companies and you’ll get eleven opinions. Ask a business owner who’s had to recover from a ransomware attack and you’ll get one: something that actually works. For UK businesses with 10–200 staff the right backup is less about the latest shiny feature and more about predictable recovery, reasonable cost and keeping the doors open when the worst happens.
Why backups matter (in plain English)
Backups are insurance, except you can’t claim without evidence and you need to be able to prove you can reopen within a sensible time. The real cost of lost data is not the file itself — it’s the downtime, the lost sales, the hours spent rebuilding spreadsheets and, crucially, the dent to reputation when customers or partners are affected. I’ve helped firms from a small retailer in Brighton to an engineer in Leeds recover from data loss; the consistent winners were the ones who planned for recovery, not just storage.
What businesses should measure before choosing a backup
Start with two simple questions that your accountant and operations director will care about:
- How quickly do we need to be back up and running? (Recovery Time Objective — RTO)
- How much data can we afford to lose? (Recovery Point Objective — RPO)
If two hours of downtime costs you a few hundred pounds, that’s different to a law firm or clinic where two hours could mean regulatory trouble and lost trust. Once you know your RTO and RPO, backup choices become decisions about whether to pay more for faster recovery or accept cheaper, slower options.
Common backup approaches (and the business trade-offs)
Local on-site backups
Pros: fast restores, under your control, one-off hardware cost. Cons: vulnerable to fire, theft and local ransomware. Good for quick restores of individual files, but risky as the only strategy.
Cloud backups
Pros: off-site resilience, automatic scheduling, simple scaling. Cons: ongoing cost, depends on internet speed for restores. For many UK firms cloud backups solve the “what if the office burns down?” problem — but you must test the restore process.
Hybrid (local + cloud)
This is the pragmatic sweet spot for most SMEs: keep a recent copy locally for fast recovery and an encrypted copy in the cloud for disaster recovery. It balances cost and speed, and reduces single points of failure.
Managed backup services
Pros: someone else handles policy, monitoring and restores; usually an SLA. Cons: recurring fees and handover dependency. For businesses without dedicated IT staff, managed services free time and reduce risk — provided you choose a competent provider and keep routine checks in place.
What I recommend for UK businesses with 10–200 staff
Short answer: a hybrid, managed approach with clear policies and regular testing.
Why? Because I’ve seen local-only backups fail when a burglar took servers, and cloud-only plans stall when an urgent restore had to download terabytes over a DSL line. The hybrid approach gives you fast local restores for common mishaps and an off-site copy for major incidents. A managed service removes the day-to-day burden but keep it oversight-friendly: insist on quarterly restore tests, transparent reporting and a defined SLA for RTO.
Key practical pieces:
- Encryption in transit and at rest — for GDPR and common sense.
- Immutable or versioned backups — to defend against ransomware that tries to delete recent copies.
- Retention policy aligned with compliance — how long do you legally or operationally need to keep records?
- Restore testing — schedule a real restore at least twice a year (and after any major IT change).
- Documented roles — who will lead a recovery, who calls suppliers, and who talks to customers.
For a short, practical checklist that you can run through with your operations team, see our natural anchor.
Costs and budgeting — what to expect
Backups are an operational cost, not a capital mystery. Expect to budget for:
- Storage costs (cloud fees or replacement drives)
- Bandwidth for initial seeding and large restores
- Management time or a managed service fee
- Occasional test restores and audits
All of these are cheaper than even a day of productive staff being offline. When you model the options, include lost revenue and reputational damage — that often changes the maths quickly in favour of a slightly higher monthly fee for guaranteed recovery.
Practical steps to implement now
- Decide acceptable RTO and RPO with your leadership team.
- Select a hybrid solution that supports encryption, versioning and immutable snapshots.
- Schedule automated backups and a twice-yearly restore test.
- Train two people to perform a restore and keep the process in your business continuity plan.
- Review retention and data location for compliance (especially with cross-border cloud storage).
These are straightforward tasks and won’t take long — but they do need ownership. I’ve seen firms delay for months because “IT will sort it”, then scramble after a failure. Make it someone’s job with a deadline.
FAQ
What’s the single best backup for a small business?
There isn’t a single best. For most UK businesses a hybrid approach (local copy for fast restores + encrypted cloud copy for disaster recovery) offers the best balance of cost and continuity.
How often should I test my backups?
At minimum twice a year, and after any significant IT change. Tests should be real restores, not just checking that files exist.
Can free backup tools protect my business?
Free tools can be part of a strategy, but they usually lack features like immutable snapshots, centralised management and vendor support. For 10–200 staff, the risk of downtime means investing in a solution with accountability.
How long should I keep backups for?
Retention depends on legal and operational needs. Keep short-term backups for quick restores (days/weeks) and archive longer retention for compliance (months/years), documenting the policy so it’s consistent and defensible.
Do I need off-site backups if I use cloud software like Office 365?
Yes. SaaS providers often have limited retention and recovery options for accidental deletion or account compromise. A third-party backup ensures you control retention and can restore specific items quickly.
Choosing the right backup is about reducing uncertainty and protecting cash flow, not winning a technology argument. A pragmatic hybrid backup, supported by regular testing and clear responsibilities, saves time and money when things go wrong, and preserves credibility with customers. Take a short afternoon to set RTOs and RPOs, schedule your first test and give the responsibility to a named person — it’s likely the best small investment your business will make this year for calm and continuity.
