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Backup Testing and Recovery Readiness — Can You Actually Recover?

We test your backups for real. And we make sure you know what to do the morning it all burns down.

From point-in-time restore testing to full continuity planning — scoped to what you actually need.

A backup restore test is a concrete, documented verification of your organization's ability to recover its data in the event of an incident. Factero performs real restores in an isolated environment, measures actual RPO and RTO, and produces a detailed report. For organizations that want to go further, the engagement can be extended to recovery readiness (BCP/DRP): business impact analysis, continuity strategies, failover procedures, simulation exercises. Most organizations trust their MSP's dashboard — but 'green status' doesn't say anything about what happens the morning you actually need to resume operations.
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Who is it for?

Any organization that has never tested its restores.

Municipalities, MRCs, townships and public bodies and SMEs wanting to validate their provider's promises. Factero Advisory Services is registered on the SEAO (Quebec) and the Ontario Tenders Portal (Ontario).

Organizations that recently changed IT providers or backup solutions and want to confirm the transition went smoothly.

Growing companies that have added systems or cloud environments and have never validated that their new data is properly covered.

Organizations preparing for a transaction — acquisition, merger, or financing — that need to document their operational resilience.

Boards or management teams seeking independent confirmation of their operational resilience — not out of distrust toward their provider, but because external validation is part of good governance.

Organizations that have experienced a past incident and want to ensure their backup environment is now reliable and tested.

Organizations that want to go beyond the technical test and structure their business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DRP) — to meet the requirements of an insurer, a standard (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CAN/DGSI 104), or a corporate client.

When does it help?

If you recognize yourself in any of these situations, this service is designed for you.
  • You've never tested a full restore.
  • Your provider confirms backups are running without issues — and that's good news. But a successful backup execution doesn't guarantee it will be restorable the day you actually need it. The independent test complements what your provider is already doing well.
  • You want to know how much time and data you'd lose in an incident.
  • You want to objectively validate what your IT team or provider has put in place — and document that it works.
  • Your cyber insurer requires documented proof of restoration testing for policy underwriting or renewal.
  • You have a recovery plan — but it's several years old and no one knows whether it would still work.
  • You don't have a recovery plan and your board, your insurer, or a major client is starting to ask for one.
  • A standard you're preparing for (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CAN/DGSI 104, TGV) requires a documented and tested continuity plan.
  • Your provider confirms backups are in order — and they probably genuinely believe it. But confirming that backups run without errors isn't the same as knowing what actually happens the day you need them. A restoration test is the equivalent of a full fire drill — not just checking where the exits are, but simulating the full evacuation under real conditions.

What will you receive?

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Documented test report: what works, what doesn't.

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Realistic RPO/RTO figures based on the test.

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If your RPO and RTO are not yet defined, we establish them with you based on the test results — in concrete terms: how many hours of downtime and how much data loss your organization can realistically absorb.

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Concrete recommendations if gaps are identified.

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A management-language reading: how many hours of downtime and data loss your current RPO/RTO represent — so leadership can assess real financial exposure.

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Test report formatted to meet cyber insurer documentation requirements — results, tested environment, measured RPO/RTO, recommendations.

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On extended engagement — a Business Impact Analysis (BIA): which processes are critical, cost per hour of downtime, internal and external dependencies.

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On extended engagement — a Business Continuity Plan (BCP): strategies per critical process, recovery priority order, required resources, alternative suppliers.

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On extended engagement — a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP): detailed failover procedures, restoration sequence, responsibilities by role, conditions for return to normal.

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On extended engagement — a tabletop exercise: we bring your stakeholders together around a realistic scenario and document what works and what doesn't in your plan — before a real incident does it for you.

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Analysis and validation of your existing recovery plan — if you have one. We verify whether it's realistic, current, and consistent with what the test revealed. If you don't have one yet, we point you toward where to start.

Not a good fit?

  • If your backups have already been tested in a real restoration by an independent third party in the last 12 months and the documentation is current, you may already have what you need. If that's not the case — or if the last test was done internally — that's exactly what this service is for.
  • If you're looking for a provider that will operate your recovery during an actual incident (24/7 services, hot-standby infrastructure), that's not our model. We prepare, document, and validate — MSSPs and specialized recovery infrastructure providers handle ongoing operations. We can help you choose the right operational partner; any referral arrangement is disclosed.
  • If you want a decorative continuity plan to check a box for a client, we're not the right address. A plan that hasn't been tested in simulation won't stand up to a serious auditor — and won't help you in a real incident either.

How does the process work?

A rigorous and transparent approach, step by step.
Realistic scenario
We design a realistic restore scenario tailored to your environment. If your backups are solid, the test confirms it — and you have independent validation to present to leadership, your board, or your insurer. If gaps exist, we document them before they become costly.
Restore in isolated environment
We restore in an isolated environment to document what works and what breaks. If your backups are solid and the restore works as expected, we confirm it — that's a valid result too. If gaps exist, they're documented with their real-world impact.
RPO/RTO in plain language
How much you can lose (in data) and how long you can stay down (in hours). We put realistic numbers on it.
Business Impact Analysis
For engagements extended to recovery readiness, we map your critical processes, document dependencies (systems, suppliers, key people), and quantify the impact of an outage by hour and by day. This is the foundation without which a BCP/DRP has no defensible hierarchy.
Building the BCP/DRP
We structure the plan around your reality — not a template. The BCP covers business processes (who does what with what resources if X goes down). The DRP covers technical procedures (restoration sequence, who calls whom, failover conditions). We document to the useful level, not the bureaucratic level.
Tabletop simulation
We organize a tabletop exercise with your stakeholders: leadership, IT, provider, key partners. We play out a realistic scenario — ransomware, major incident, loss of a critical supplier — and document what would actually happen. The surprises come out in the meeting room, not in the middle of an incident.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to the questions our clients ask before reaching out.
What environments can you test?
Factero tests the most common backup environments found in municipalities and SMEs: Microsoft 365, Azure, Google Workspace, on-premises backup solutions like Veeam, Acronis, and Datto, NAS appliances (Synology, QNAP), virtualized environments (VMware, Hyper-V, Proxmox), and hybrid configurations combining cloud and local infrastructure. Each test is tailored to your technical reality — we don't apply a generic scenario to your setup. During the free 20-minute discovery call, we identify together the critical systems to test, realistic failure scenarios for your industry, and the technical feasibility of testing in your specific environment. Results are documented with measured RPO/RTO indicators that meet cyber insurer requirements and NIST-CSF best practices (Recover function).
Our MSP already tests our backups. Why an independent test on top of that?
An independent test verifies the outcome, not the process. Your MSP confirms that backups run without errors — that's necessary but insufficient. An independent test conducted by Factero goes further: we actually restore the data in an isolated environment and measure whether it's complete, consistent, and usable within an acceptable timeframe. That's the difference between 'the backup ran' and 'we can resume operations.' The NIST-CSF framework (Recover function) explicitly distinguishes these two levels of validation. If your MSP's results and our test align, you have documented double confirmation — useful for cyber insurers and compliance audits. If a gap appears, you identify it before a real incident, not during one. The two approaches complement each other — they don't replace one another.
What's the difference between a backup test and a recovery plan (DRP)?
The backup test verifies one thing: do my data come back? The recovery plan answers a bigger question: if everything goes down tomorrow morning, what do we do, in what order, and who calls whom? The technical test is a component of the DRP, not its equivalent. A DRP covers the full recovery sequence: which systems to restart first, who notifies clients, how business operations continue during the outage, under what conditions we declare a return to normal. The BCP (Business Continuity Plan) is broader still: it covers business processes (should operations continue on paper? with an alternative supplier?), not just IT. Factero can start with the technical test — often the best entry point because it's concrete and quick. If the test shows the rest needs to be structured, we naturally expand the engagement. If you already have documented plans, we validate them with a critical eye before a real incident does.
Will the test disrupt our operations?
No, the backup restore test does not affect your operations. Factero performs the restoration in an environment completely isolated from your production infrastructure — no machine, server, or active database is touched during the process. Specifically, we create a separate test environment (virtual or physical depending on your configuration), restore data from your backup copies, and validate their integrity without ever interacting with your live systems. Your employees continue working normally throughout the entire test. The only interaction required from your IT team or provider is granting us access to the backup copies and answering a few technical questions about the configuration. The process follows NIST-CSF testing practices (Recover function), which specifically require an isolated environment to ensure the validity of results.
Our provider says everything is green. Why test anyway?
Green status confirms backups are running, not that they work. An all-green dashboard means the backup process completes without technical errors. But it doesn't answer the real question: is the restored data complete, consistent, and usable within an acceptable timeframe? Those are two distinct realities. Factero performs an actual restore test in an isolated environment to answer the question the dashboard cannot resolve: can we actually resume operations? Results are documented with measured RPO/RTO indicators — the same standards used by cyber insurers and required in compliance audits. If your provider is right, our test confirms it with documented independent validation. If a gap exists, you identify it before a real incident. Either way, it's a concrete gain for your organization.
How does the tabletop exercise work?
A tabletop exercise brings your stakeholders together around a realistic scenario — without touching real systems. Concretely: a half-day to full-day session, in person or remote, with leadership, the IT team, sometimes your primary provider, and one or two key partners. Factero runs the scenario — for example: "Monday 6 a.m., ransomware has encrypted all your servers, your MSP is unreachable, your most important client has a delivery scheduled Wednesday." We unfold it hour by hour: who calls whom? What's the internal communication procedure? External? And the insurer? And the CAI if personal data is affected (Law 25)? Which business processes can continue manually? Which stop everything? The exercise exposes the gaps in the plan — not out of malice, but because no plan survives first contact with a real scenario unless tested. The report documents blind spots and corrections to make. Many leadership teams come out of this exercise with an operational view they didn't have — and it's often what justifies investing in the follow-up (formal continuity plan, contracts with alternative suppliers, retainer with a DFIR partner).
What standards do you use to assess backups and continuity plans?
Factero relies on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (Recover function) and recognized business continuity standards (notably ISO 22301 for organizations targeting a formal framework) to structure each engagement. Results are documented using two standard indicators: RPO (Recovery Point Objective — maximum acceptable data loss, in hours) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective — maximum recovery time before operational impact). These indicators are the ones used by cyber insurers to assess risk coverage and by auditors to validate backup process compliance. If your RPO and RTO are not yet formally defined, we establish them with you based on the test results — in concrete language tailored for executive leadership. The final report includes measured results, identified gaps, and recommendations prioritized by risk level. This format is designed to satisfy both the technical requirements of your IT team and the documentation obligations of your insurer.
Does this commit us to ongoing work?
No. The engagement ends with the report (and the plan, if scope is extended). Some organizations prefer to come back at regular intervals — an annual test for insurance reports, a tabletop every 18-24 months for the BCP/DRP. Others internalize the cadence after the first cycle. Our Charter of Independence prohibits creating artificial dependency — we never recommend follow-up you don't need.
Why Factero for this engagement — what sets you apart?
Before signing with a firm on this type of engagement, verify a few fundamental elements. A serious firm demonstrates them without hesitation and in writing. The firm itself is certified — Factero holds the CyberSecure Canada (CAN/DGSI 104:2021 / Rev 1:2024) certification, publicly verifiable through the IAF CertSearch registry and through our Trust Center. We apply to our own organization the same standards we support for our clients. A firm guiding you in cybersecurity should, by consistency, hold one itself. Incorporated and established since 2022 — Factero Service Conseil is duly incorporated with the Quebec Enterprise Registrar (REQ) since 2022, with no insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings on record. The legal status of any candidate firm can be verified free of charge through the REQ; insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings appear in the registry of the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada (osb-bsf.ic.gc.ca). Complete team and operational continuity — Factero relies on an interdisciplinary team covering information technology, human resources, and accounting — the three dimensions that intersect in most governance engagements. A structuring engagement extends over several months; the firm supporting you must have the team depth to go the distance, not just the availability of a single person. Professional liability and cyber insurance — Factero maintains active professional liability (E&O) and cyber insurance coverage, adapted to its IT governance and cybersecurity consulting activities. A firm that recommends cyber insurance to you should, by consistency, hold one itself. Ask for the certificate before signing. Written and public independence — Our engagements are governed by a public Charter of Independence that prohibits commissions, rebates, and commercial arrangements with vendors, brokers, or markets. Public procurement registration — Factero is registered with the SEAO (Quebec) and the Ontario Tenders Portal — a process that involves regulatory verifications and up-to-date tax attestations. These criteria are not commercial arguments. They are the minimum conditions to require of any candidate firm. The absence of a clear answer to any of these questions is, in itself, an answer.
Our advice remains independent. See our Charter of Independence.

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