Backups proven to work
before the day you actually need one
A backup nobody has ever restored is a hope, not a backup. Most teams only discover theirs does not work the day they actually need it. We build an agent that spins up a real restore from your latest backup on a schedule, in an isolated environment. It confirms the data is intact and the application actually starts, not just that a backup file exists somewhere.
Why a backup nobody has restored is just a hope
Most teams set up backups once, confirm the backup job ran without an error, and never check again whether the result actually restores. That gap is invisible for months or years. Right up until a real incident forces an actual restore, a corrupted database, a ransomware event, an accidental deletion. That is the worst possible moment to discover the backup is incomplete, corrupted, or restores into a state the application cannot even boot from.
Recovery time nobody has actually measured is the second cost. A runbook might say “restore takes about an hour,” based on a guess or a memory of doing it once years ago. The real number, with today’s data volume and today’s infrastructure, is usually different. Finding that out during an actual outage adds hours to a recovery that was already under pressure.
Backup processes also drift silently. A schema change might not get accounted for in the backup script. A new table never makes it into the export. A credential expires and has been failing quietly for weeks, while the job reports success because it technically ran.
How the drill proves the restore works
On a schedule you set, weekly or monthly depending on how critical the system is, the agent takes your latest backup. It runs a full restore into an isolated environment that never touches production. It checks data integrity with row counts, checksums and spot-checks against known key records. Then it boots the application against the restored data to confirm it actually starts and serves requests, not just that the database file is intact. The full restore time gets measured and logged against your target recovery time, so you know the real number instead of an estimate.
If anything fails, a restore error, a data mismatch, an application that will not boot, the agent alerts immediately with the specific failure. Your team gets time to fix the backup process itself, long before an actual incident forces the issue. The runbook for a real restore stays current with whatever steps actually worked in the last successful drill. It reflects reality, not a document written once and never revisited. Typical integrations: your existing database and backup tooling, a disposable cloud environment for the drill, and Slack or Telegram for alerts and the dated drill log.
What stays a human call
Deciding the drill schedule and the recovery time target are business decisions your team makes, not something the agent infers. So is what counts as acceptable data loss in a real incident. An actual restore into production during a real incident is a deliberate, supervised action a person takes, informed by the drill history showing it has worked reliably. The agent proves the process works. It does not perform a live recovery unsupervised.
How drills stay risk-free
Every drill, its result, and its restore time gets logged with a date, building an audit trail that satisfies most compliance and insurance requirements around disaster recovery testing. Drills always run in an isolated environment, never against anything connected to production, so a failed or even a destructive test drill carries zero risk to live data. A kill switch pauses the drill schedule during a planned migration or maintenance window, without losing the history already recorded.
Price and timeline
| Option | Price | What it covers | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single automation | from $800 | One database or application, scheduled drills, integrity checks, restore time tracking | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Department package | from $2,300 | Restore drills plus database migrations with safety checks across your data layer | 2 to 4 weeks |
Running cost is usually $20 to $70 a month in cloud and model usage depending on data volume and drill frequency.
Related
This pairs well with database migrations with safety checks, since both protect the same data. Secrets rotation keeps the credentials a restore depends on current too. For the SaaS side of the same problem, see the existing SaaS data backups and monitoring automation. Full package details are on the AI agents service page and the automation-everything overview. For a real recovery we handled from a broken system, see the factory ERP recovery case study and the secure infrastructure case study.
Have you actually tried restoring your backup recently? Get in touch and we will run the first drill with you.
Tired of doing this by hand? We can take the whole routine off your team, not only this step: Routine takeover, from $400 →
FAQ
How is this different from just having backups?
Having a backup file and having a backup that restores cleanly are different things. This automation proves the second one, on a schedule, by actually running the restore rather than trusting that the export process worked.
How much does a backup and restore drill setup cost?
From $800 for one database or application, live in 1 to 2 weeks. Multiple systems with a shared drill schedule usually run $1,500 to $2,500.
How often does a drill run?
Weekly or monthly, your choice, run against an isolated environment so the drill itself never touches production. More critical systems usually warrant a weekly cadence.
What happens if a drill fails?
An alert fires immediately with exactly what failed, a restore error, a data mismatch, an application that would not start. Your team can fix the backup process long before an actual incident, not during one.
Does this work with our existing backup tool?
Yes. The agent runs the restore from whatever backup your current process already produces. That could be a managed database snapshot, a custom export script, or a third-party backup service.