Data Backup & Disaster Recovery · Western Massachusetts
A backup that has never been tested is not a backup — it's protecting your business on a wish and a prayer.
Most small businesses have some form of backup in place. Most have never tested whether it actually works. The difference between those two statements is the difference between recovering from a ransomware attack in hours and recovering from one in weeks — or not recovering at all. Backup is not a set-and-forget service. It is a continuously monitored, regularly tested, compliance-informed program that exists for one purpose: ensuring your business can recover from any data loss event with a defined outcome and a realistic timeline.
NetWerks delivers backup and disaster recovery through a structured program — immutable cloud backup with optional local vault, tiered testing cadences based on your service level, and compliance-tailored retention schedules that reflect your actual regulatory obligations rather than a generic "keep everything forever" approach. Backup that is monitored, tested, and proven — not assumed.
Why most small business backup programs fail when they're needed most
Backup failure is rarely dramatic. It's quiet. A backup job that silently failed three weeks ago. A cloud backup that was running but never tested. A recovery time expectation that was never defined — until the moment it mattered.
Backups that ran — but were never tested
A backup job showing green in a dashboard is not evidence of a recoverable backup. Corruption, incomplete jobs, misconfigured retention, and storage failures can all produce a backup that looks healthy until the moment you need to restore from it. The only way to know a backup works is to test the restore — not the job status.
RTO and RPO that were never defined
Recovery Time Objective — how long until you're operational again. Recovery Point Objective — how much data you can afford to lose. If these numbers were never defined before an incident, they become promises nobody can keep under pressure. "We'll have you back up quickly" is not an RTO. A documented, tested recovery time is.
Backups that ransomware can reach
Standard cloud backup connected to your network is accessible to ransomware. An attacker who compromises your environment can encrypt or delete your backups before you know an attack is in progress — eliminating your recovery option at the same moment they eliminate your production data. Immutable backup exists specifically to prevent this.
Retention that doesn't match your compliance obligations
HIPAA requires six years of retention from creation or last effective date. FTC Safeguards, state data protection laws, and contractual obligations each have their own retention requirements. A generic backup retention policy that wasn't designed around your specific obligations is a compliance gap — and potentially a regulatory one.
The 3-2-1-1-0 backup methodology — the gold standard for ransomware-resilient data protection
NetWerks backup programs are built on the 3-2-1-1-0 methodology — the current industry standard for backup architecture that protects against ransomware, hardware failure, natural disaster, and human error simultaneously.
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Copies of your data
The original plus two backup copies — redundancy against any single point of failure
2
Different storage media
Cloud and local storage — different failure modes mean both won't fail at the same time
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Offsite copy
Geographic separation protects against site-level disasters — fire, flood, physical theft
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Immutable/offline copy
A copy ransomware cannot reach — write-once storage that cannot be encrypted or deleted by an attacker
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Errors after restore testing
Zero errors confirmed through regular restore testing — not assumed through job status monitoring alone
The local vault option — a secure NAS device configured as an additional backup layer on your network — provides the second media type in the 3-2-1-1-0 architecture and significantly reduces recovery time for local restores. Available on request as part of any TechSentry backup engagement. Requires procurement and configuration of appropriate NAS hardware.
The NetWerks approach to backup
"A backup that has never been tested is not a backup — it's protecting your business on a wish and a prayer."
Every NetWerks backup engagement includes structured restore testing — not just monitoring whether backup jobs complete. Because the only way to know a backup works is to prove it works before you need it.
Two levels of backup management — both include restore testing
Every NetWerks backup engagement includes restore testing — not just job monitoring. The level of testing and the cadence scales with your TechSentry service tier.
Monitored Backup
Alert management and semi-annual restore verification
NetWerks monitors all backup job alerts and remediates failures as they occur — ensuring backup jobs complete successfully rather than silently failing without notice. Restore testing is performed semi-annually using a NetWerks-created known content folder — files of varying formats with known contents — that allows verification of both successful restoration and data integrity without touching client data.
Available at
TechSentry Essentials and SafeStart — with Managed available as an option at these tiers with quarterly testing
Managed Backup
Comprehensive restore testing with client-verified recovery validation
Everything in Monitored, plus comprehensive restore testing that includes randomly selected client-specific folders in addition to the known content verification. Restored data is delivered to an alternate location and the client reviews their own content to confirm validity — client-verified recovery, not just provider-verified. Testing cadence scales with service tier: quarterly for Guardian, monthly for Guardian Pro.
Default at
TechSentry Guardian — quarterly comprehensive testing • TechSentry Guardian Pro — monthly comprehensive testing
Your backup retention schedule should reflect your regulatory obligations — not a generic default setting.
Backup retention is not just a technical setting — it is a compliance obligation for regulated industries. A generic "keep 90 days of backups" policy may satisfy a break-fix IT provider's default configuration while leaving your organization in violation of the retention requirements that actually apply to your data.
NetWerks configures backup retention schedules around your specific regulatory obligations — ensuring your backup program satisfies both the recovery and the compliance dimensions of data protection. When a regulator asks how long you retain patient records, financial data, or contract documentation, the answer should be "exactly as long as required" — not "as long as our backup tool's default setting."
HIPAA
6 years from creation or last effective date
FTC Safeguards
Best practices based — configured to industry standards
CMMC / DFARS
Per contract requirements and CUI handling obligations
Multi-state privacy laws
Retention across all states where you operate or serve clients
Production system backup — because reconstructing a PLC configuration from memory is not a recovery plan.
Recovering from ransomware in a manufacturing environment is dramatically more complex than office IT recovery. PLC configurations, HMI programs, SCADA databases, and network device configurations require specific backups that most manufacturers have never taken — and most IT providers have never thought to ask about. Without them, recovery isn't measured in days. It's measured in weeks of vendor coordination, manual reconstruction, and production line downtime.
NetWerks extends backup coverage to operational technology environments — capturing device configurations through SNMP management or device management agents where supported, and including exported configuration copies in the documentation platform where direct backup is not possible. Your production systems are protected. Your recovery is planned.
See manufacturing IT & OT services →Backup is built into TechSentry — not an afterthought.
Immutable cloud backup for desktops and servers is included from TechSentry SafeStart and above — with the optional local encrypted vault for environments that need faster local recovery or an additional media layer. Backup at the Essentials tier is available as an optional add-on.
Every TechSentry backup engagement includes a defined RTO and RPO — recovery time and recovery point objectives documented before an incident occurs. Not aspirational targets. Tested, realistic commitments based on your actual environment and backup architecture.
Learn about The TechSentry Way →TechSentry Essentials
Backup available as optional add-on. Monitored management.
From $50/endpoint
TechSentry SafeStart
Immutable cloud backup included. Monitored + semi-annual testing.
From $150/user
TechSentry Guardian
Managed backup. Quarterly comprehensive restore testing.
From $250/user
TechSentry Guardian Pro
Managed backup. Monthly comprehensive restore testing.
From $500/user
Backup is part of a complete security program.
Recovery from ransomware starts with backup — but preventing it starts with security.
See Cybersecurity Services →The Small Business Owner's Guide to IT Support Services and Fees
Not sure what a quality backup and disaster recovery engagement actually includes — or what fair pricing looks like for businesses your size? Our free guide covers what to look for, what to avoid, and what to expect from a managed IT provider.
Get the free guide
Let's start with an honest look at what you have in place today
Many businesses we talk to have backup in place — and have never tested whether it would actually recover their data under real conditions. A 15-minute discovery call is the starting point for understanding what your current backup program covers, what it doesn't, and what it would actually take to recover if you needed to today. No jargon, no pressure, no obligation.
Not ready for a call? Take one of our free industry-specific IT readiness assessments — they include a backup and recovery evaluation that gives you a clear picture of where you stand before you speak to anyone.
- No obligation — ever
- No jargon — plain English only
- Defined RTO & RPO — not guesswork
- Tested recovery — not assumed
- Veteran-owned • Live answer guaranteed
- Serving within 50 miles of Springfield, MA
Springfield · Agawam · Westfield · Chicopee · Holyoke · Northampton · Ludlow · East Longmeadow · Longmeadow · West Springfield and surrounding Hampden County communities
