Ask the owner of a small accounting, engineering, or consulting firm whether they're prepared for a disaster, and the answer is often, "We have backups."
That's a good start. But backups and business continuity aren't the same thing. Knowing the difference can determine whether a firm is back to work in a few hours or struggling for weeks.
The Short Version
- Backup is a copy of your data.
- Disaster recovery is the process of restoring your systems and data from those copies.
- Business continuity is your plan for keeping the firm operating and serving clients while recovery happens.
Think of it like a spare tire. The backup is the spare. Disaster recovery is changing the tire. Business continuity is figuring out how you'll still make your client meeting on time.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Backup | Business Continuity | |
|---|---|---|
| Main question | Do we have a copy of our data? | How do we keep serving clients during a disruption? |
| Focus | Files, databases, email | People, processes, systems, and communication |
| Typical owner | IT provider or internal IT | Firm leadership with IT support |
| Measured by | How recent and complete copies are | How quickly the firm can operate again |
| Fails when | Copies are missing, corrupted, or encrypted | No one knows what to do or who decides |
Why Backups Alone Fall Short
Restoring takes longer than expected
A backup might contain everything you need, but restoring several hundred gigabytes of files and a practice management database can take a day or more. During that time, staff can't work normally.
Backups don't tell people what to do
When systems go down, someone has to decide whether to send staff home, how to contact clients, and which deadlines need extensions. A backup can't make those decisions.
Backups can be compromised
Ransomware often targets backups first. If your only backup is connected to the same network with the same passwords, it may be encrypted along with everything else.
Some things aren't backed up at all
Firms are often surprised to learn that certain cloud applications, email archives, or software configurations aren't included in their backup.
What Business Continuity Adds
A business continuity plan for a small professional firm usually covers:
- Critical functions: client deliverables, deadlines, billing, and communication.
- Recovery targets: a recovery time objective (how fast each system must return) and a recovery point objective (how much data you can afford to lose).
- Alternate work arrangements: remote work, a backup location, or loaner laptops.
- Communication: how to reach staff and clients if email is down.
- Decision authority: who declares an emergency and who speaks to clients.
- Vendor contacts: software providers, internet carriers, and your IT partner.
A Realistic Scenario
An eight-person accounting firm loses its server to a hardware failure on March 30, two weeks before a major tax deadline.
Firm A has backups only. The backups are intact, but nobody has tested a full restore. A replacement server takes three days to arrive, and restoring data takes another day. Staff spend most of a week unable to work.
Firm B has backups and a continuity plan. Its plan includes cloud-based recovery that runs critical systems temporarily in a hosted environment. Staff are working remotely by the afternoon. The partners notify a few clients about short delays, and the firm meets its deadlines.
Both firms had backups. Only one had a plan. Downtime affects more than productivity, as we explain in the real cost of IT downtime.
Questions to Ask Your IT Provider
- What exactly is included in our backups, and what isn't?
- How long would a full restore take?
- Is at least one backup protected from ransomware?
- When did we last test a restore?
- Can critical systems run temporarily in the cloud if our office equipment fails?
Build Both
Backups are essential, but they're the foundation, not the whole house. Maise Technology helps firms build complete plans through our business continuity services and disaster recovery services.
Not sure whether your firm has backups only or a real continuity plan? Schedule A 15 Minute Discovery Call and we'll help you find out.
