EPX IT works out what the business cannot run without, how quickly each part has to come back and how much work you could afford to redo, then documents the recovery order and the group and permission structure that goes with it.
Backup and Disaster Recovery
Backup and disaster recovery for growing UK businesses, tested so that a failed server or a lost file is a call to EPX IT rather than a crisis.
Most businesses have a backup, and far fewer know what it covers, how far back in time it goes, or whether anyone has ever restored from it. That gap stays invisible until the day something has to come back.
Backup problems that show up only during a restore
A backup that reports success every night can still fail you, because a completed backup job proves data was copied rather than proving a business can be put back together. What EPX IT finds when it takes over a backup usually falls into four groups:
- Files come back and permissions do not, so nobody can reach what they need or everybody can reach everything
- A deleted SharePoint site comes back item by item rather than as a working site
- Retention is set at 12 months and the IT provider cannot say whether that suits the business
- Machines acting as micro-servers, such as print servers or a Paxton door system host, are not backed up and nobody has asked the question
Why UK businesses move backup and disaster recovery to EPX IT
Backup was set up once, it has reported success ever since, and nobody has asked it a harder question than that.
EPX IT has supported UK businesses for over 20 years, currently manages 2,500 computers for 38 fully managed partners across Staffordshire and the West Midlands, and holds Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
Every partner works with a named Partner Consultant who owns the commercial side, so cost and risk sit with someone accountable, backed by a service team that knows how the environment is built and what has to come back first.
What backup and disaster recovery covers
- Servers copied to an appliance on site every couple of hours and replicated off site, with a lower cost direct to cloud option
- Failover, so a replacement server can run on the appliance while the original one is rebuilt
- Microsoft 365 backed up daily and separately, covering email, OneDrive and SharePoint
- Permissions and group membership backed up alongside the files, so a restore returns a working system
- Endpoint backup for laptops and desktops, including machines acting as micro-servers such as print servers or a Paxton door system host
- Twelve month retention on both, held in a data centre EPX IT selects with you, UK included
Recovering from a failed server, and how long it takes
The appliance on site is a micro-server, which is what makes the difference between a backup and a recovery. It takes a copy every couple of hours, so a failure costs a couple of hours of work rather than a day of it.
When a server fails EPX IT can spin a replacement up on the appliance and have the business working within about half a day, while the original is rebuilt properly rather than in a hurry.
EPX IT usually knows before you do, because a failed server raises an automated ticket, so the first call is normally EPX IT ringing you. The service team leads the recovery to an order agreed with you in advance, since that is something to decide calmly rather than during an outage.
A UK ingot manufacturer's legacy server failed and took two days to rebuild, at a cost of around £140,000 in lost production, missed delivery slots and the recovery effort itself. EPX IT has since rolled BCDR appliances out across the manufacturers it supports, so the same failure gets recovered on site in hours rather than days.
Restoring Microsoft 365, SharePoint sites and file permissions
Microsoft keeps the platform running and you stay responsible for the data inside it, which is why Microsoft recommends a separate backup in its own service agreement. Its retention runs from a fortnight for deleted mail to about three months for files, and it is built to undo a mistake rather than to rebuild a business.
The harder problem is the shape a restore comes back in. Recovering a deleted SharePoint site through the platform means putting it back item by item, so you get the contents rather than the site.
A file server fails the same way, because most backups take the folders and leave the permissions and groups behind. The data returns, access does not, and somebody rebuilds it from memory while the business waits.
EPX IT backs up Microsoft 365 separately with 12 month retention, holds it independently of your own Microsoft environment, and writes the group and permission structure up as part of the disaster recovery plan. Licensing and day to day management sit with cloud services and management.
How EPX IT protects and recovers your data, step by step
1. Review and plan.
2. Protect and prove.
Copies run through the day rather than once overnight, failures raise an alert to EPX IT rather than sitting in a log, and restores are tested so the plan is evidence rather than an expectation.
3. Recover.
The automated ticket reaches EPX IT first, the service team leads the recovery to the agreed order, and your Partner Consultant tracks the cost and the risk on your behalf.
Is this right for your business?
Backup and disaster recovery from EPX IT is a good fit if:
- A ransomware attack, a failed server or a deleted site would significantly disrupt operations, revenue or customer commitments
- Backups report success and nobody has restored from one, so it is not clear what would come back
- You would need a system running again the same day, and what you have is a copy of the data rather than a way to keep working
- Microsoft 365 holds email, files and sites the business depends on and you are relying on the platform's own retention
- A customer, an insurer or a regulator has asked what your recovery arrangements are and the answer took some finding
What an untested backup costs you
An untested backup costs nothing until the day it is needed. Insurance makes the price visible earlier, because brokers load the premium where backup and recovery arrangements are thin and some will not quote at all without them.
Managed properly the position is known. EPX IT can say what is protected, how far back it goes, when it was last proved to restore and how long recovery would take, so a bad day becomes a process the business follows rather than a problem it discovers.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a business back up its data?
How long does it take to recover after a server failure?
How do you know the backups would actually restore?
Is Microsoft 365 backed up already?
Is OneDrive a backup?
How long are backups kept?
Does Cyber Essentials require backups?
Can you recover our data after a ransomware attack?
Who is accountable when systems go down?
Talk to EPX IT
If you want to know that your business could carry on working after a failed server or a ransomware attack, a conversation with our team is the next step.
Prevention is the other half of this, and our cyber security and threat protection service covers monitoring, staff training and Cyber Essentials.
