For small businesses, we map a 3-2-1 stack and step-by-step playbook, cutting setup time by 64% in a single afternoon.
You know a single failure could sideline payroll, invoices, or tomorrow's shipments. Buying storage without a plan leaves gaps, slow restores, and false confidence during real incidents. We turn your inventory and constraints into a practical 3-2-1 plan you can complete today.
Invoices stuck because a desktop died. A laptop with client files disappears at the airport. An external drive clicks and won’t mount. No one documents what to restore first. Every hour offline costs sales, reputation, and sleep.
The non-obvious truth: tools don’t save data—process does. We start by mapping what matters, where it lives, and how fast you need it back. Our planner builds a right-sized 3-2-1 stack (local NAS + cloud + offsite), then walks you through the first full backup.
Before: a studio with two Macs, one USB drive, and zero restores tested. After: automated nightly backups, cloud mirrors, monthly offsite, and a 15‑minute restore drill that actually works.
After a local bakery lost a decade of recipes and payroll in one afternoon, our founder realized most small businesses don’t need another storage ad—they need a plan. As a former MSP lead, they spent years cleaning up partial backups and painful restores. The pattern was clear: inventory first, then process, then tools. We turned that into a guided planner any owner can finish in an afternoon. Early drafts were tested with real shops, firms, and nonprofits until the steps were unmistakable. Today, we publish transparent comparisons, checklists, and runbooks that favor outcomes over hype. Our mission is to make reliable backups boring, predictable, and routine for every small team.
Our questionnaire surfaces what truly matters and how quickly you must recover it. It auto-ranks apps, folders, and SaaS data to translate urgency into concrete storage and scheduling decisions.
We propose NAS capacity, cloud tiers, and offsite cadence based on your data profile. Each recommendation includes estimated monthly cost and expected restore times for realistic planning.
Follow a concise checklist tailored to your tools and operating systems. Built-in verification steps confirm job integrity, encryption status, and recovery readiness.
We provide sample scenarios and step sequences for files, applications, and machines. Scorecards reveal slow links or misconfigurations before a real incident tests your plan.
Input team size and data growth assumptions to predict capacity across tiers. Get alerts when projections exceed thresholds so you can tune schedules or archive policies.
We evaluate features owners actually use: encryption, versioning, seed/return options, and throttle controls. Side-by-side notes clarify when a service fits—or when another is a better match.
Opt into monthly health reminders and quarterly drill prompts tied to your stack. We include a two-minute checklist that validates schedules, logs, and retention policies.
Spend 12–18 minutes listing devices, folders, and SaaS data with quick priorities. You’ll feel relief seeing everything in one place.
In about 10 minutes, review right-sized NAS, cloud, and offsite options. Confidence replaces guesswork as you pick with clear tradeoffs.
Set aside one afternoon to follow the click-by-click runbook. Finishing the first pass replaces anxiety with a quiet, earned calm.
Spend 20–30 minutes running a small restore and scheduling quarterly drills. You’ll know, not hope, that recovery works when it counts.
Real experiences from people who trust us
“We’d put backups off for months. Their planner took 40 minutes and pointed us to a NAS plus cloud setup. Our first restore drill dropped from 58 minutes to 19, and partners finally relaxed.”
“We lost a drive last year and ate two days of rework. This time, we restored a 12 GB project in 14 minutes. Cost forecast kept our monthly spend under $30.”
“The runbook made setup idiot-proof. We verified encryption, ran a small restore, and passed an internal audit. Our team now gets quarterly reminders to test—no more hoping.”
“We compared services with their notes and picked a plan with return-restore drives. Shipping a drive back shaved our recovery by 73% versus internet-only.”
“Setup took one afternoon including a 20 GB test. Our board loved the clear costs and drill results. Volunteers can follow the checklist without calling IT.”
Plan your 3‑2‑1 stack and run your first full backup with clear steps.
Everything in Free plus restore drills, audit-ready docs, and growth forecasting.
One-on-one session to finalize stack choices and walk through first backup live.
Everything you need to know
Yes—the core planner is free. We earn affiliate commissions if you choose recommended tools or hardware through our links. We also offer optional paid upgrades like the Pro Toolkit and a Concierge session for those who want hands-on support.
Single copies fail in real incidents and often can’t restore fast enough. A 3‑2‑1 plan gives you a local copy for speed, a cloud copy for offsite protection, and a rotation to guard against theft or ransomware. Free services rarely provide versioning, encryption, or recovery controls you’ll need.
It depends on dataset size and upstream bandwidth. Many teams complete the initial pass within one afternoon for 500–800 GB. Our runbook helps seed locally where possible and schedules smart throttles so work continues uninterrupted.
No. We don’t handle your data. You connect directly to vendors and devices you control. Our guides show how to enable encryption, create strong keys, and verify logs without sharing access with us.
We account for that. The planner suggests staggered uploads, bandwidth windows, and where available, seed/return-drive options. You’ll still have a fast local copy for immediate restores while the cloud copy completes over time.
We shortlist options like Backblaze, IDrive, Carbonite, Acronis, and Wasabi-based workflows because they’re widely used by small teams. The right pick depends on your devices, data size, and recovery targets—our planner explains tradeoffs clearly.
Teams typically avoid $2,500–$6,000 per incident in labor and lost sales and cut restore times by 40–70% after one drill. That’s based on common failure scenarios like a dead laptop or corrupted project folder, not rare disasters.
If you manage client work, payroll, or inventory on a handful of devices, yes. It might NOT be for you if you already run documented restores quarterly, maintain offsite rotations, and have tested imaging for every machine—congratulations, you’re ahead.
Absolutely. Share the runbook with your IT lead or book the Concierge session. We’ll finalize settings together, verify encryption, and complete a small restore to prove it works.
Quarterly for core files and systems is a practical rhythm. After major software updates or device changes, run a quick spot-check. Our Pro Toolkit includes templates and reminders to keep this on track.
For small businesses, we map a 3-2-1 stack and step-by-step playbook, cutting setup time by 64% in a single afternoon.
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