Choosing how often to back up your business data is about balancing risk and resources. Backup frequency means how regularly copies of your important files and systems are saved so that if something goes wrong—like a cyberattack, hardware failure, or accidental deletion—you can restore your data with minimal loss. The right backup schedule depends on how much data you can afford to lose and how quickly you need to recover.
Why backup frequency matters for Canadian SMBs
For small and mid-sized businesses in Canada, downtime or data loss can have serious consequences. Losing recent sales records, customer information, or employee data can disrupt operations, reduce staff productivity, and damage your reputation. In some sectors, privacy regulations require you to protect personal information, so insufficient backups might expose you to compliance risks. Frequent backups reduce the window of potential data loss and help you recover faster, limiting the impact on your business.
A typical scenario: balancing frequency and cost
Consider a 50-person Canadian company handling customer orders and invoices daily. If they back up data only once a day, a system failure in the afternoon could mean losing all transactions since the last backup. This might require redoing work, frustrating customers, and delaying payments. A managed IT provider might recommend backing up critical data every hour during business hours and doing a full backup overnight. This approach minimizes data loss and fits within the company's budget and technical capacity.
Practical checklist: what to do next
- Ask your IT provider: How often do backups occur? Are backups incremental or full? How quickly can you restore data after an incident?
- Review service agreements: Check the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) — the maximum acceptable data loss measured in time — and the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) — how quickly systems are restored.
- Identify critical data: Determine which files, applications, and systems need frequent backups versus those that can be backed up less often.
- Check backup locations: Ensure backups are stored securely, preferably offsite or in the cloud, to protect against physical damage like fire or theft.
- Test restores regularly: Confirm that backups can be restored successfully and within a reasonable timeframe.
- Use multi-factor authentication (MFA): Protect backup systems and access with MFA to reduce cyber risk.
Next steps
Backup frequency is a key part of your overall disaster recovery plan. It's worth discussing your business's specific needs with a trusted managed IT provider or IT advisor who understands the Canadian market and compliance environment. They can help you design a backup strategy that balances protection, cost, and operational impact without unnecessary complexity.