Clear, practical steps to keep your personal and team data safe, compliant with local expectations, and easy to restore when needed.
Store copies across at least two independent locations to avoid single points of failure.
Verify restores on a schedule so backups are actually usable when needed.
Keep data only as long as needed for operations or regulatory requirements; minimize exposure.
Use a simple cadence you can maintain: hourly snapshots for critical items, daily copies for active work, weekly archives for long-term reference.
Fast restoration and full control. Best for teams that manage their own infrastructure.
Convenient off-site copies with provider-managed durability. Verify retention and export options.
Choose a mix that suits your recovery time objectives and legal retention needs. Document where each data set lives and who can access it.
Retention policy checklist
Example: a small team reduced restore time from 6 hours to 20 minutes by adopting scheduled snapshots and automated verification.
Define retention per data class: ephemeral logs (days), project files (months), official records (years) — align with operational and legal needs.
Run scheduled integrity checks and perform sample restores periodically. Keep logs and alerting for failures.
