What is Backup, Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity?
Backup and disaster recovery for Canadian businesses: automated snapshots, encrypted off-site copies, standby systems and DR plans tested to your RTO/RPO.
Discipline: Cybersecurity & Business Continuity
Working term: Per system rto and rpo agreed for each important system
Formats: ongoing monthly work or a single audit
Who you talk to: the senior lead, on every weekly call
The service
Our approach to Backup, Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
Prepare your organization for any contingency. CreateITivity designs and tests end-to-end disaster recovery and business continuity plans tailored to your recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). With automated snapshot schedules, off-site encrypted data backups, and standby infrastructure, we ensure your business operations can recover quickly in the event of an outage, system fault, or data loss incident.
Problems that show up again and again when we first look at an account. Our plan is built to deal with each one.
No one knows how long a restore takes
Copying a large file server back from the cloud can take far longer than the business can wait. Without a timed test, the recovery estimate is a guess.
Backups sitting next to the servers they protect
A copy on the same storage, in the same room or reachable with the same admin password can be lost in the same fire, flood or ransomware attack.
Every system treated the same
The accounting database and last year's marketing archive rarely need the same recovery speed. Paying for top-tier protection everywhere wastes money, and protecting everything at the lowest tier leaves the critical systems exposed.
A recovery plan that lives in one person's head
If the steps to bring systems back are undocumented, or the document is stored on the server that just failed, recovery depends on who happens to be reachable that day.
Inside a Backup, Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity engagement
The core work
Plans built to your RTO and RPO
Automated snapshots
Encrypted off-site backups
Also covered
Hot-standby infrastructure
Recovery tested, not assumed
How we keep the work accountable
Before work starts, we agree on the number that matters most to you. Each sprint is planned against it. You get a short recorded update every week and a dashboard you can open any time, and the senior lead joins every call.
A senior lead runs your account from day one
A recorded walkthrough each week and a shared reporting dashboard
We work inside the tools and CMS your team already uses
Target ranges written into the agreement before we begin
Our Process
Four stages of Backup, Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
The same order every time: find the constraint, plan, deliver, then review. Here is what each stage involves.
01
Business impact review
We list your systems, find out who depends on each and agree how long each can be down and how much data each can lose.
02
Design the recovery tiers
Snapshot schedules, off-site encrypted copies and standby infrastructure are matched to each tier, with storage locations documented, including Canadian residency where required.
03
Write the runbook
The disaster recovery and continuity plan sets out the restore order, decision-makers, communication steps and every credential and contact needed, stored off the systems it covers.
04
Test and rehearse
Restores are tested and failovers rehearsed on a schedule. Each test is timed against your targets, and anything that falls short gets fixed and tested again.
01
Recovery tiers
Critical systems first, archives last
Recovery targets
Set RTO and RPO per system, then design to them
Two questions shape every recovery design. How long can this system be unavailable before the business is seriously hurt? That is the recovery time objective (RTO). How much recent work can you afford to redo or lose? That is the recovery point objective (RPO).
We go through your systems with the people who use them and agree a target for each. An order-taking system may need to be back within hours and lose no more than a few minutes of transactions. A document archive might tolerate a day or more. Those targets decide the snapshot frequency, where copies are kept and whether a system needs standby infrastructure, so you pay for speed only where it is needed.
RTO and RPO agreed with you for each important system
Systems grouped into recovery tiers
Snapshot frequency set by the data-loss target
Standby infrastructure reserved for the systems that need it
02
Backup design
Encrypted copies off-site, out of an attacker's reach
Our designs follow the long-standing 3-2-1 approach: at least three copies of important data, on at least two different types of storage, with at least one off-site. Automated snapshots give quick local recovery from accidental deletion or a bad update. Encrypted off-site copies cover the loss of the whole site.
Because ransomware often goes after backups, the off-site copy is kept separate from everyday admin accounts, so an attacker who takes over the network cannot simply delete it. For organizations that need their data to remain in Canada, backup copies are kept in Canadian data centres, and we document where every copy lives.
Automated snapshot schedules for fast local restores
Encrypted off-site copies, protected in transit and at rest
Backup access kept apart from day-to-day admin credentials
Canadian storage locations where residency matters
03
Test schedule
Restores and failovers rehearsed, then reported
Testing and failover
A recovery plan only counts once it has been rehearsed
We test restores on a schedule. That means restoring real files, mailboxes and databases, then checking that the applications open and the data is complete. For systems with standby infrastructure, we rehearse the failover itself: switching users over, confirming they can work and switching back.
The disaster recovery plan is written down and stored where it will survive the outage it describes. It lists the restore order, who makes decisions, who contacts staff and customers, and the passwords and vendor numbers needed to carry it out. Each test produces a short report of what worked, how long it took and what we changed.
Scheduled restore tests of files, mailboxes and databases
Failover rehearsals for systems on standby infrastructure
A written plan stored off the systems it protects
A report after every test, with fixes tracked to completion
What you can hold us to
The commitments behind this service
These describe how the work is done and what you receive. They are not predictions about attacks or outages, which nobody can promise.
A named senior specialist leads each account
Progress shown in live Looker Studio dashboards
Measured on leads and revenue
Per system
RTO and RPO agreed for each important system
3-2-1
Three copies, two media types, one off-site
Rehearsed
Restores and failovers tested on a schedule
Written
A recovery runbook stored away from the systems it protects
FAQs
Before you sign: common questions
Straight answers on scope, timing and how we report.
How is disaster recovery different from backup?
A backup is a copy of your data. Disaster recovery is the plan and the infrastructure for getting systems running again from those copies within an agreed time. You can have good backups and still be down for days if nobody has planned the restore order, the hardware or the steps.
What does hot standby mean?
A hot-standby system is a second environment kept in sync and ready to take over if the primary fails, so the switch happens quickly. It costs more than restoring from backup, so we reserve it for systems with short recovery time targets.
How often do you test our backups?
We agree a schedule with you based on how critical each system is. Important systems are tested more often than archives, and every test is written up with how long the restore took compared with the target.
Can our backups stay in Canada?
Yes. Where privacy obligations, contracts or your own policy require Canadian data residency, we keep backup copies in Canadian data centres and document each location.
Do you cover Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace data?
We include cloud mailboxes, files and sites in the design. Cloud providers keep their platforms running, but restoring a deleted mailbox or an overwritten folder from months ago is usually your responsibility, which is why we back that data up separately.
Find the weak spots in your systems before they fail
Tell us what you run, where it is hosted and what has gone wrong lately. One of our engineers looks it over by hand and sends back the first fixes we would make, whether or not you hire us. Marketing and development questions are welcome too.
Planning security and continuity work? Let's talk.
Tell us about the business and a senior specialist will get back to you within one business day. If starting with security and continuity looks like the wrong first step, we will say so and suggest what to fix first.
