Your company’s backup is 100 percent reliable, until it’s not.

Without ever testing your backup, you’re working off of assumptions. Your files sit in storage, waiting for their time to shine. This is not a recovery strategy.

A thorough backup test will reveal whether you’re ready to use your files and processes to keep your business afloat in case of an emergency. Without tests, your first live backup restoration becomes your first real trial and there’s no room for error.

Below are five major risks associated with skipping backup testing.

1. Inability to recover from ransomware attack

Ransomware doesn’t only target your system; it targets your backup files as well.

Just because your data is backed up does not mean it’s safe. If your backup files are compromised, or your entire backup restoration process hasn’t been tested yet, you won’t be able to recover anything when you need it most.

An apparently healthy backup sitting within your dashboard will not always work in live recovery.

Regular testing verifies backups are clean and able to be restored. Testing also shows the time required for recovery. The additional two hours of downtime affects income and client service and company functions. In case you haven’t ever done testing, you won’t know how that will affect your business.

2. Data loss permanently

Data loss isn’t necessarily caused by a cyberattack. Hardware malfunctions, unintentional file deletions, application corruption and natural catastrophes can cause irretrievable losses to the necessary documents.

If there is no testing of the backup system, then one assumes that everything is saved and can be restored in the same manner. When restoration process fails and leads to the loss of data, only that assumption is left to consider.

Testing guarantees successful recovery process under real conditions rather than theoretical ones. Your personnel can make sure the documents are opened with no problems and applications work as expected.

3. Stealthy data corruption

Backup errors sometimes occur silently in the background for weeks or months before they are noticed.

The files can be corrupted due to gradual processes, configuration settings can become inconsistent after system updates, and critical data may stop getting backed up at all without any alarm being raised. You will only know that something went wrong once you try to recover some data and cannot find it.

Periodic checks ensure that you have discovered backup issues well in advance of a disruption rather than trying to fix things when you urgently need to recover data.

4. Expensive downtime

While each second of downtime costs money for your business, the outage itself is not always the most pressing problem. Discovering during an outage that your team has never run through a data recovery procedure before can cause even greater complications.

The lack of a backup test means that a procedure which was supposed to take 20 minutes takes hours instead. The team members struggle to perform a restore without a clear process, under high stress.

The regularity of testing means that recovery will become habitual even before an emergency situation arises. You will know exactly how to act and will have an idea of a successful data recovery. This is what can turn a difficult situation into a manageable one.

5. Compliance issues and fines

Many industries must comply with specific rules concerning data protection and retention. Failing to perform data recovery on time may be a problem that can cost a company heavily.

You will not just receive a warning; a regulator will expect from you a proof that data recovery process is performed in a proper way. If you fail at this task, you will face some penalties and lawsuits along with the necessity to pass a compliance audit.

Backup testing allows companies to prove their compliance with the regulations.

Your backups are only as good as your last data recovery process

Data backup itself does not mean anything. Only tested data recovery can protect you from something unexpected.

It is not always the case that the companies dealing well with outages possess advanced equipment. What they do have is practice and know-how of what needs to be done prior to any outages occurring.

Do not waste time during an actual crisis on testing how effective your disaster recovery solution will be.

Set up a 10-minute discovery call to review your current state of affairs and get a plan for improvement.