Businesses rely heavily on the integrity and availability of their data. And the backup of your servers is essential for business continuity and data loss prevention.
Whether you’re running a small business, managing data for a larger organization, or offering managed services, understanding how to effectively back up your (or your customers’) servers can save you from costly downtime and data loss.
74% of SMB owners either self-manage their cybersecurity or rely on untrained family members or friends. Furthermore, 26% of these owners acknowledge that the person managing their cybersecurity lacks adequate training. (Viking Cloud, 2025)
In this blog post, we’ll provide five practical tips for your server backup so that you can make an informed decision about how to set up and manage your backup jobs based on your specific needs, industry regulations, and more.
1) How to Back up Your Server – Step-By-Step
There are two parts to creating a comprehensive server backup that gives you the best chance of recovering your data and systems after a data loss scenario, such as accidental deletion or a ransomware attack: Automate as much of the backup process as possible, and review and adjust it from time to time.
At a high level, this could mean:
1. Identify Critical Data
Not all data needs to be backed up at the same cadence. Prioritize the files, databases, and system configurations that are critical to your business. And don’t forget, re-evaluate your prioritization periodically to include new applications, files, and folders.
2. Choose a Backup Destination
This can be local (an external drive or network storage) or cloud based. Today, many organizations opt for hybrid setups that combine both. Many government and industry regulations even require companies to maintain both onsite and offsite backups of their data.
3. Schedule Regular Backups
Establish a regular schedule that minimizes disruptions. For example, back up business-critical data to local and offsite storage daily, and less critical data weekly. The actual frequency will depend on your business. If daily is not enough, try hourly. Also, automate this step to ensure that backups run at scheduled times and are not accidentally missed.
4. Test the Backup Process
Make sure your backup is working, – that is, that you can easily restore your files – by running test restores on a regular basis. Many companies overlook this step until it’s too late. In addition to knowing that your backups are working, it also ensures that you know how to recover your files and systems in a worst-case scenario.
5. Monitor and Review Logs
Keep an eye on backup logs to make sure everything is running smoothly. Nothing is worse than thinking everything is fine, only to find that, for example, your backup storage has been broken for weeks.
When a backup and recovery strategy is carefully planned, supported by flexible technology, and properly managed, the only thing separating organizations from returning to business after a data loss event is the time it takes to complete a recovery.
To learn more about building a comprehensive backup and recovery strategy that meets your business needs, read our whitepaper “Secure your data, protect your business.”
2) File vs System Server Backup
File Backup
A file backup contains all the files and folders that you have selected to be backed up, as well as any recent changes to them. A file backup is also the easiest type of backup to restore from because you only need to access the relevant backup media to restore individual files or folders from it.
File backups are typically stored in a compressed, proprietary format that requires the software that created the backup to restore them. File backups are typically performed with an initial backup of all selected data, followed by a subsequent backup of changes to those files and folders.
This flexible approach helps you manage your backup storage more efficiently to reduce costs, reduces the time it takes to perform backups, and simplifies data recovery by allowing you to review different versions of a file and even restore something from several weeks ago (if you have enabled this in the backup’s retention settings).
Disaster Recovery or Image Backup
An image-based backup, also known as a disaster recovery, disk image, or system image backup, allows you to create a full disk backup of your entire system (or one or more partitions), including your operating system, settings, applications, and all your data, rather than just your files and folders. These backups are often made periodically in addition to regular file backups.
When you create a Disaster Recovery or image backup, you can quickly restore your entire server exactly as it was, even if the new server utilizes different hardware. This can be very effective in disaster recovery scenarios where your entire system is lost. Some backup solutions can store the image as virtual hard disks (VHD/VHD(x)) that can later be mounted as a virtual machine using Hyper-V, reducing the time it takes to access important system information or your data.
3) Server Backup to Local Backup Storage
When it comes to selecting the best storage device for your server backups, there are a lot of options. One thing to remember is that you don’t want to just set up a, say, Network Attached Storage (NAS) and call it a day. A secure and reliable server backup solution utilizes multiple backup destinations and storage devices to ensure comprehensive data protection (more on this in the “Hybrid Server Backup” sections below).
When choosing the best storage medium for your local server backup, you should be able to choose the device that makes the most sense for your environment. For example, if you need to back up a single physical server, a direct-attached hard drive or solid-state drive might make more sense than a high-end NAS. More importantly, whatever you use should be able to scale as your storage needs grow.
Here’s a brief overview of typical local backup storage that can be used for your server backup, along with its advantages and disadvantages:
External Hard Drives (HDD), Solid State Drives (SSD), USB Drives
Advantages: Easy to use with a fast data transfer and high storage capacity, while being relatively cost-effective.
Disadvantages: Vulnerable to physical damage (HDDs in particular are prone to damage), and data could be lost in the event of theft. 64% of downtime events are related to human errors, such as device mismanagement, misconfiguration, and inadvertent data loss. (ITIC Research, via Expert Insights)
Network Attached Storage
Advantages: Centralized data storage with options for built-in redundancy.
Disadvantages: High initial purchase cost and requires some technical knowledge for setup and management. If you’d like to dig deeper into how NAS can be beneficial for your backup strategy, continue with our “Essential Guide to NAS as Backup Storage for SMBs.”
A note on backup appliances: If you choose a backup appliance that comes with backup software, make sure you can easily add other storage destinations, such as cloud storage, to ensure a well-rounded backup strategy.
4) Offsite and Cloud Server Backup
Organizations that protect data onsite only are highly susceptible to data loss due to human error, intentional deletion, natural disaster, software corruption, hardware failure, and malware. This is where offsite and cloud backup become essential.
Cloud backup creates a redundant copy of your data to protect against local disasters and improve restore reliability. By storing data in multiple redundant storage infrastructures, you can return to any point in time quickly, without requiring additional investment in hardware infrastructure, software, or maintenance.
When deciding whether cloud backup is right for your server backup strategy , consider the following:
- Reduction in Costs: Administrative overhead is greatly reduced. A single administrator can manage and monitor cloud backups centrally or on the go. You pay only for the storage space your data actually requires, with no hardware investment needed.
- Unlimited Scalability: Cloud storage adapts to your organization’s changing requirements far faster than a traditional model. Businesses with fluctuating storage needs can take advantage of pay-as-you-grow models, avoiding unnecessary upfront investment.
- Access and Flexibility: Data can be monitored and managed from wherever you are, with the ability to back up and restore to and from anywhere with an internet connection.
- Security and Compliance: Cloud backup stored with encryption at rest and in transit, combined with access controls and an audit trail, helps businesses meet regulatory requirements such as HIPAA.
- Ransomware Mitigation: Storing an isolated offsite copy of your data via cloud backup can mitigate the effects of a localized ransomware infection and provide a clean copy to restore from.
5) Hybrid Server Backup
While cloud backup alone offers strong offsite protection, relying exclusively on it leaves you entirely dependent on your internet connection and a single provider. The most resilient approach combines the speed of local backup with the redundancy of cloud storage, this is what’s known as a hybrid backup strategy.
One of the most common backup guidelines to achieve a combined local and cloud backup is the 3-2-1 rule. No surprise, since it’s easy to remember and usually cited as a great example of a reliable and restorable backup strategy.
