Most business owners have seen the green “backup successful” message. Far fewer have seen an actual backup report: the document that shows what was backed up, which jobs had problems, and whether anyone has restored from it.
If you’ve never asked your MSP/IT provider for one, that’s the first step. Once you have it, these five questions tell you whether it’s worth trusting.
1. Is everything that matters on the list?
A backup report lists what’s being protected: servers, shared folders, Microsoft 365 mailboxes and files, line-of-business databases. Compare it against what your business actually runs on. The common gaps are a shared folder added last year, a new laptop, or Microsoft 365 data that nobody realized needed its own backup.
2. Did every job finish?
Look for jobs that ended with a warning or failed outright. One failure is a problem to fix. The same job warning every night for months is a sign nobody is reading the report.
3. What happened to the ones that didn’t?
A good report, or the conversation around it, explains each failure: what went wrong, what was done about it and whether the next run worked. “It’s fine now” without a date or a cause isn’t an answer.
4. When did someone last restore from it?
A backup you’ve never restored from is a guess. Ask when the last test restore was, what was restored, how long it took and whether the data came back complete. The answer should be a date and a result, not “we’d be able to.”
5. Who reviews it, and how often?
Reports only help if someone reads them. Ask who looks at yours and when you’ll see it. At ITAssurance℠, we walk through backup reports and restore-test results with every DataAssurance℠ client every quarter.
Keep a checklist next to the report
We put these checks on a one-page checklist you can hold next to your latest backup report. If you can’t tick a box, that’s a good question for your MSP/IT provider.
Frequently asked questions
What is a backup report?
A backup report shows what is being backed up, whether each backup job finished, which jobs had warnings or failures, and when data was last restored as a test. It's the evidence behind the green "backup successful" message, and the document to ask your MSP/IT provider for.
How do I know my backups actually work?
Ask for the date and result of the last test restore: what was restored, how long it took and whether the data came back complete. A backup that has never been restored from is a guess. A recent, recorded restore test is the evidence that it works.
Who should review the backup report?
Someone should read it on a schedule, and you should see it too. At ITAssurance, we walk through backup reports and restore-test results with DataAssurance clients every quarter, so problems are found and explained, not just logged.
Get the free one-page backup report checklist.
General information for business owners. It isn’t legal, compliance or insurance advice for your specific situation.
