Tim changed Anita’s Excel spreadsheets 2 months ago. He made an honest mistake and did not notice that he changed the format of the fields from formulas to number values. While the numbers stayed the same for hundreds of cells in dozens of spreadsheets, the underlining formulas are no longer there. This went unnoticed for 2 months, because Anita did not attempt to change any calculations and the numbers stayed the same. Now that the next quarter is coming to a close, Anita goes to change the input cells, yet the formula fields, do not budge. Panic ensues as everyone realizes that the spreadsheet that took months to build is no longer useful. Since the backup scheme only kept 14 versions, this spreadsheet with the formulas is long gone.

This is a very common scenario and can easily be prevented with off-site backup versioning spread-out over an extended period of time.
 

While the backup technology is not new and has been around for decades, the basic integrity of the backups can easily be compromised due to the regular possibility of data corruption. It often happens that a backup exists and it even exists in the correct version. However, when the attempt to restore that backup is made, the data is either not there or the file is corrupt.

We assist our clients with regular test restores and data inspections that allow for a validation of the integrity of data. While this process can be a tedious one, it is nevertheless a critical step in ensuring predictable continuity of operations and proper preparedness for a disaster.
 

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