A backup you've never restored is a hope, not a backup

Ask a room of small-business owners whether their files are backed up and most will say yes. Ask when the backup was last restored — actually restored, a real file opened from it — and the room goes quiet. That gap is where businesses get hurt: the backup existed, but it was incomplete, misconfigured, or hadn't run in months.

“Microsoft has it” isn't a backup

Microsoft 365 includes recycle bins and retention features, and they're useful — for recent, simple accidents. They are not designed for a mailbox deleted months ago, a folder emptied by a departing employee, or ransomware encrypting synced files. A real backup is an independent copy, kept separately, that you control.

What a restore test looks like

It's unglamorous: pick a few real files, an email, and a mailbox; restore them from backup to a test location; open them; confirm they're intact. Note the date and the result. Repeat on a schedule. Ten minutes of boredom that converts “we think we're backed up” into “we know, and here's the date we proved it.”

How we handle it

GuruVault, our backup offer, pairs Microsoft 365 and workstation backup with scheduled restore tests — and reporting either way, so “verified” means verified. If your office has never run a restore test, it's the single most valuable item to put on the calendar this month.

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