How often should our backups be tested?

The uncomfortable industry secret is that many businesses discover their backups don't work at the exact moment they need them — after ransomware, hardware failure, or accidental deletion. Backups fail quietly: jobs error out, storage fills, configurations drift after office changes. Without verification, you have a false sense of security, which is worse than none.

The standard to hold your provider to: automated backup monitoring with daily verification that jobs completed, plus periodic test restores — actually pulling files and systems back and confirming they work. Ask your MSP two questions: 'When did a backup job for us last fail, and how did you find out?' and 'When did you last test-restore our data?' Specific, dated answers are what good looks like.

Also confirm your backups follow the 3-2-1 pattern — multiple copies, multiple media, at least one off-site/immutable copy that ransomware on your network can't reach. On-site-only backup is how businesses lose everything to one incident.