Backups are not enough: without restore testing, your data is at risk
Backups alone are not enough. Learn why regular restore testing is essential to ensure the security, integrity and availability of your critical data.
It’s now common for companies to implement automated data backups through well configured backup solutions.
But that’s not where the real challenge lies. What truly matters is the company’s ability to restore its data under stress, within tight deadlines and recover intact, accessible and functional information.
And for that, there’s only one reliable method: regularly testing your restores.
Many servers are never successfully restored
According to the Veeam Data Protection Trends Report 2024, only 58% of tested servers were restored within their SLA (Service Level Agreement) timeframes. Even more concerning: in 42% of cases, the restored data was inaccessible or unusable at the critical moment.
Worse still, only 13% of organizations have an automated orchestration of their disaster recovery plan (DRP), a key factor in reducing human error and organizational chaos. When asked about restoring 50 servers, just 32% of respondents believed they could achieve it within a week. These figures reveal a structural lack of readiness for restoration, turning backups into a false sense of security.
ISO/IEC 27031: Business continuity and information security
The ISO/IEC 27031 standard, updated in its 2025 version, provides a highly technical framework for ICT readiness in business continuity. It outlines precise guidelines for preparing IT systems to ensure operational continuity. Its foundation is the PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act) cycle:
Plan: define an IRBC policy, set RTO/RPO objectives, identify target resources. Do: implement procedures, automate restores, simulate incidents. Check: run regular tests, analyze failures, measure SLA compliance. Act: adjust, improve and feed insights into future audits.
The new version explicitly recognizes cloud environments and the criticality of outsourced services. It therefore recommends:
- Running regular, scheduled and documented restore tests.
- Defining clear RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) targets.
- Maintaining a continuous improvement loop: Plan – Do – Check – Act.
So, it’s not enough to have a backup. You must prove, at regular intervals, that your backup is restorable, within the required time and without data loss.
Testing rigorously to ensure effective restores
We’re not suggesting you restore every bit of data each week. But doing no testing at all is clearly dangerous. Here’s a practical, field tested approach aligned with ISO 27031, not a one size fits all recipe but a solid foundation adaptable to your IT environment (volume, business criticality, staffing, technical architecture, DevOps maturity, tools, etc.):
- Identify critical assets to test: key VMs, sensitive databases, business configurations.
- Automate partial restore tests in an isolated environment.
- Document results: duration, data integrity, encountered errors.
- Compare actual results with theoretical RTO/RPO objectives.
- Update the procedure after each test.
- Include these tests in every audit or security review.
What matters is that your backup and restore procedures are clear, tested, documented and repeatable. Even a well executed monthly restore test on a single critical VM is better than a “perfect” plan that’s never tried.
Why restores can fail
Here are some common causes identified in the Unitrends 2025 Report:
| Common Issue | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Corrupted or incomplete files | Restore impossible or data unusable |
| Snapshots tied to outdated versions | Incompatible restoration |
| Misconfigured storage paths | Backup unusable |
| Lost permissions or ACLs | No access to restored files |
| Non-representative test environments | “Successful” restore… but not in production |
These problems highlight the importance of testing restores under realistic conditions.
Testing also saves time
Ask yourself these three questions now and you’ll know if your backup strategy truly holds up:
- Have I ever restored the backups I think I can rely on?
- How long would it really take?
- What state would my data be in once restored?
If you can’t answer confidently, your restoration plan isn’t ready and it’s far better to discover that in a calm moment than in the middle of a crisis caused by ransomware, RAID failure or a bad deployment script.
In short, your restore strategy should include:
- ✅ Versioned, tested, and isolated backups.
- ✅ Regular restore tests, ideally automated.
- ✅ Clear, up-to-date documentation.
- ✅ Integration of ISO requirements (27031, 22301).
- ✅ Clear internal communication on restore delays, roles, and limitations.
Conclusion
If only 58% of servers pass restore tests and barely a third of organizations feel capable of restoring 50 servers in under a week, it’s clear that companies need to invest more IT effort in orchestrating their restoration strategy. The key isn’t just backing up, it’s being able to restore under real world constraints. Best practices like ISO 27031 point to one truth: without a clear, tested and documented technical routine, sensitive data can be lost even if it was “backed up.”
You have an IT need? Discover how we can help you.