Services — S.03
A backup is a claim. A restore is evidence.
Friday, 4:40. The front desk cannot open the practice-management database. The server is up, the drive light is green, and the software times out. The last backup job reports success. Nobody in the building can confirm that the backup contains a usable copy of this morning’s schedule.
That gap, between a green status and a working restore, is where dental practices lose days.
What a backup has to survive
Most backup failures are not disk failures. They are design failures:
- The backup lives on the same network as the server, so ransomware encrypts both
- The backup runs with the same administrator account, so one stolen credential reaches it
- The job reports success, but nothing has been restored in years
- The imaging archive was excluded because it is large, and the images are the part you cannot recreate
We design for the event that matters, not for the checkbox.
What we protect
The practice-management database and its configuration. Imaging studies and the DICOM archive. Documents, templates, and the workstation setups that take a day to rebuild. If your practice-management software is hosted, the vendor protects the database, but your imaging files, local documents, and workstations still need a plan of their own.
The copy ransomware cannot reach
At least one copy is offline or immutable, held under separate credentials, and not mounted on the server it protects. That copy is the one that matters when an attacker has domain administrator access.
Everything else is convenience.
Restore testing
We restore real data on a schedule, open it in the practice-management software, and check that images open. A restore that only copies files back is not a test of the software.
Each test is recorded: what was restored, when, by whom, and whether it opened. Your HIPAA contingency plan obligations expect a data backup plan, a disaster recovery plan, and evidence that both have been tested and revised.
Recovery targets, agreed in writing
Two numbers decide the design: how much data the practice can lose, and how long it can be unavailable. We agree both with you in writing, because they depend on your software, your imaging volume, and how the practice runs a paper day.
A provider that quotes a recovery time before seeing your environment is guessing.
When the server is down
The plan covers the first hour, not just the restore. Paper forms and a spare workstation at the front desk. A printed call list. A decision about which operatories can keep working. Someone who tells patients what is happening.
The restore runs in parallel with the practice continuing to see patients where it can.
What we will not say
We will not tell you your data is safe because a job status is green. We will not promise a recovery time we have not tested. When we are unsure, we will say so and tell you what we are doing to find out.
Where this meets the other elements
Backup and recovery is the Water element, and it depends on the others. A backup on a flat network is not a backup. A restore that nobody has run is not a plan. See cybersecurity and HIPAA safeguards for the network separation that keeps a copy out of reach, and managed IT for the server work underneath.
Next step
Request a practice IT assessment.
Tell us what your practice runs and what breaks first. We reply by email with questions, not a pitch.
Do not send patient names, chart notes, radiographs, images, or any other protected health information. We will arrange a secure channel for anything clinical.