Primary audience
Infrastructure manager, DR lead, security team
Backup and Immutability Strategy
How to purchase and operate backup architecture for ransomware-resilient recovery.
Typical decision window
30-90 days
Expected output
Tiered backup architecture, restore testing cadence, immutable retention model
Implementation guidance
Business recovery targets
- Define RTO and RPO by system criticality and contract obligations.
- Set acceptable downtime cost per hour to guide tooling and staffing decisions.
- Confirm legal retention requirements before storage class decisions.
Architecture and isolation
- Use 3-2-1 with one immutable or offline copy outside production trust boundaries.
- Separate backup admin identity from domain admin and SaaS global admin roles.
- Implement deletion protection, delayed delete, and alerting for policy tampering.
Validation program
- Run quarterly restore drills for top-tier systems and annual full recovery exercise.
- Store timed restore results and remediation actions as audit evidence.
- Track backup job success, verification success, and restore reliability as separate KPIs.
Recommended artifacts
- Backup architecture diagram set
- Immutable retention policy
- Quarterly restore drill report template