First backup, what is the minimum to be serious
Three copies, two media types, one offsite. Old rule, still works.
Try this first
- 1Local: let OneDrive or Drive back up your documents. Not a full backup but it is your safety net for accidental edits and deletes.
- 2Second medium: an external drive for monthly full-laptop backup, or a NAS at home or office for automatic backup. Do not leave it permanently connected, ransomware will take both.
- 3Offsite: one copy outside your building or in a separate cloud. For sole traders Backblaze or iDrive in the background is fine; for team-level you want a dedicated tool like Veeam or M365 backup (Acronis, Datto).
- 4Each month, test that you can recover a random file from the backup. An untested backup is an assumption, not insurance.
- 5Do not store backup-system passwords only inside the backup system itself. Same as leaving a spare key inside a locked house.
When to bring us in
If you create more than a handful of customer files per day or touch financial or medical data, you are past DIY backups. RPO and RTO targets, encryption at rest, immutable storage, that warrants a real tool and a process.
See also
- First IT setup as a freelancer, what do you actually needNot everything at once. One laptop, a mailbox on your own domain, a password manager, a backup. That covers the first year.
- Hiring your first employee, what IT to arrange before day oneLaptop, account, mailbox, access to the right folders. In that order, not all of it at 9 a.m. on day one.
- Moving to a new office, IT checklistInternet and power have the longest lead times. Plan at least three months out, not three weeks.
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