Most organisations have a backup. Far fewer have proof that it restores.
That gap only ever shows up on the day you need it, which is the worst possible moment to find out.
A backup is a promise. A tested restore is evidence.
What a real test looks like
- Pick something specific: a file, a mailbox, a full server
- Restore it to a safe location, never over the top of live data
- Time it, so you know your actual recovery window
- Open the restored data and check it is complete and usable
- Write down what worked, what did not, and who ran it
Do that once a quarter and you turn an assumption into a number you can plan around. You will also surface the things nobody expected: the mailbox sitting outside the backup scope, the cloud platform with no retention behind it, the restore that works perfectly but takes three days.
None of this needs to be a project. Half an hour on one system tells you more than any dashboard.
Not sure your backups would survive a real incident?
One fix a week, over a flat white. Want the whole picture? Talk to us about Managed IT, or book a conversation.


