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The 3-2-1 backup rule, explained in plain English

October 6, 2026 · 1 min read

Hardware fails, laptops get dropped and ransomware happens. The 3-2-1 rule is the simplest way to make sure none of those become a disaster.

3 copies of your data

Your live data plus two backups. If one copy fails, you still have another.

2 different types of storage

For example a local NAS and cloud storage — so a single fault can’t take out both.

1 copy off-site

Fire, flood or theft at the office shouldn’t touch at least one of your backups.

Don’t forget to test

A backup is only as good as your last successful restore. We recommend test restores at least quarterly, and monitoring every backup job so failures are caught the same day.

Not sure your backups tick all three boxes? Our business continuity team can review them for you.

Want a monster to handle this for you? Let’s talk.