Best IT MSP · Buyer's Guide
Backup and disaster recovery (BDR) services keep copies of your data and a tested plan to restore operations fast after an outage, hardware failure, or ransomware attack. A provider automates off-site or cloud backups and sets recovery targets (RTO and RPO) so you can resume business with minimal downtime and data loss.
Backup and disaster recovery, or BDR, pairs two things: keeping current copies of your data, and a documented plan to use those copies to resume operations quickly after a disruption. Backup is the copy. Disaster recovery is the plan and process to get running again after an outage, hardware failure, natural disaster, or cyberattack.
It matters because downtime and data loss are expensive and common. An hour of downtime costs most organizations over $100,000[1], and ransomware is now a leading cause of business disruption, contributing to reported cybercrime losses that topped $16 billion in a year[2]. Tested backups are often the difference between recovering and paying a ransom.
They are related but not the same. Backup is making and storing copies of files and systems. Disaster recovery is the broader plan, the people, processes, and technology, for restoring access to applications, data, and IT after an outage. You can have backups without a recovery plan, but you cannot recover quickly without both. The strongest setups combine automated backup with a tested DR plan.
Most businesses set different RTOs and RPOs per workload, with the tightest targets on the systems they cannot run without.
The 3-2-1 rule is the backup standard: keep three copies of your data, on two different media types, with one copy off-site. It protects you when any single copy or location fails.
File-sync tools like Dropbox or Google Drive are useful storage but are not a substitute for a real BDR solution, because they do not provide tested, versioned recovery of whole systems.
Cloud backup stores copies off-site with a provider, which protects against local disasters and is increasingly the default. On-premises backup keeps copies local for the fastest restores and tight data-residency needs. Many businesses use both: local copies for speed, cloud copies for off-site protection, which satisfies the 3-2-1 rule. BDR is closely tied to your broader cybersecurity and cloud setup.
BDR is usually part of a broader managed IT services plan. Shortlist three providers, ask each the same questions, and compare. To start from a vetted, merit-ranked list, browse providers by city in the Best IT MSP directory.