Backup solutions are often mistaken for resilience. In reality, resilience is about the ability to recover services, not just data, within agreed timeframes following an incident such as ransomware or system failure.

Effective resilience requires clearly defined recovery objectives (RTO and RPO), tested recovery procedures and confidence that backups are protected from compromise. Without regular testing and validation, backup strategies provide a false sense of security.

For public‑sector and regulated organisations, resilience also has an assurance dimension. Decision‑makers must be able to demonstrate that recovery plans are realistic, tested and aligned to business priorities — not just technically possible.

Key takeaway:

If you haven’t tested recovery under pressure, you don’t have resilience — you have hope.