The Backup Wrap-Up

What's your real backup TCO? Most organizations focus on software licenses, hardware, and cloud storage when budgeting for backup infrastructure. But those are just the visible costs. The true backup TCO includes something far more expensive: the humans managing it all.In this episode, Curtis and Prasanna break down the complete picture of backup costs. They explore why soft costs—the labor, the troubleshooting, the daily monitoring—often exceed what you're paying for technology. With studies showing over half of environments spend more than 10 hours weekly on backup management, those labor dollars add up fast.The discussion covers cloud storage pitfalls (especially with object lock and retention policies), why automation is your best friend, and whether SaaS-based backup might actually save you money. Curtis shares his infamous 1993 story about losing a production database – the origin story of Mr. Backup himself. If you're looking to get a handle on your backup TCO, this is the episode for you.

Ransomware attacks on backups have reached epidemic levels, with 96% of attacks now targeting backup infrastructure. In this episode of The Backup Wrap-up, Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi break down the alarming statistics and explain why cybercriminals have made your recovery systems their primary target.The math is simple: if attackers destroy your backups, you're far more likely to pay the ransom. And with only 25% of organizations feeling prepared for ransomware attacks on backups, the gap between threat and readiness is massive.Curtis and Prasanna discuss two studies revealing these numbers, explore why less than 7% of companies recover within a day, and outline practical defenses including true immutability, separate identity management systems, and MFA. If you're not protecting your backup infrastructure from ransomware attacks on backups, you're leaving yourself wide open.

Building a cyber security team isn't optional anymore; it's the difference between recovering from ransomware and going out of business. In this episode, Curtis and Prasanna explain why hardening your backup infrastructure is only half the battle. You need professionals who know how to configure XDR systems without drowning you in false positives, blue teams to defend your environment, and red teams to test whether your defenses actually work. They cover the role of MSSPs, incident response planning, cyber insurance requirements, and why attempting ransomware response on your own is like those old TV warnings: "Don't try this at home." If you've been following their series on backup basics and system hardening, this episode ties it all together with the human element that makes or breaks your recovery plan.

Want to know how to build an resilient backup system that protects from ransomware attacks? In this episode, Curtis and Prasanna go beyond the basics to discuss four critical security features every modern backup system needs. Building on feedback from their previous episode about backup fundamentals, they cover multi-factor authentication (and why SMS doesn't cut it anymore), secure remote access methods, role-based access control, and when to bring in managed security service providers. The hosts explain why the person with full backup system access is literally the most powerful person in your company from a data destruction standpoint. If ransomware is your number one recovery scenario—and it is—then these security hardening techniques aren't optional. They're survival skills for your backup infrastructure.

Every backup system needs certain design elements to actually work when disaster strikes. In this episode of The Backup Wrap-up, W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup) and Prasanna Malaiyandi break down the 10 non-negotiable components your backup system must have. They cover the 3-2-1 rule, automated scheduling, recovery testing, defined RTOs and RPOs, backup security, SaaS protection, documentation, retention policies, monitoring, and endpoint backup. If your backup system is missing any of these elements, you're taking risks you can't afford. Curtis and Prasanna share war stories from real disasters and explain why no one cares if you can back up - they only care if you can restore. This fast-paced episode gives you the checklist every IT professional needs to evaluate their current backup approach.