What is The 3-2-1 Rule for Backups?

The 3-2-1 rule, as outlined in our backup strategy, emphasizes having three total copies of your data, two local on different devices, and one off-site. This redundancy is key to safeguarding against various forms of data loss. Backup refers to the act of creating copies of data, while disaster recovery is the strategic use of these backups to resume business operations swiftly after an outage.

Here is an overview:

Three Separate Copies

‍We start by creating three independent copies of your essential data. This includes your primary data set and two additional backups. Multiple copies ensure that you have a safety net in case one version is compromised, whether by data corruption, accidental or intentional deletion, or a cyberattack.

Two Local Copies on Different Devices

‍For the two local copies, we store them on separate devices or media within your organization's network. This could range from different servers to separate partitions on a network-attached storage (NAS) system. The diversity in local storage mediums ensures that a hardware failure on one device will not result in a total loss of your backup data.

One Off-site Copy

‍The third copy is securely stored offsite using our managed cloud backup services, powered by Entra ID with Microsoft Azure. The offsite backup benefits from Azure's global data center network, offering geographical redundancy and compliance with regional data protection laws. This makes it an ideal solution for disaster recovery, as it remains unaffected by local outages or disasters.