CTS - Computer Technology Specialists

Disaster Recovery Melbourne

Name: CTS - Computer Technology Specialists
Address: L30 - 35 Collins St Melbourne 3000, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, AU
Telephone: 1300 790 780
Price range: $$
Rating: 5.0

CTS designs and manages disaster recovery solutions for Melbourne small and medium businesses — covering backup strategy, RTO and RPO planning, immutable cloud backups, Microsoft 365 data protection, server recovery, ransomware recovery, DR testing, and business continuity planning. Every CTS disaster recovery engagement produces documented recovery procedures tested against the agreed RTO before they are needed. CTS provides a free disaster recovery audit for Melbourne businesses wanting to understand their current recovery capability.

Melbourne IT support with visible local credentials

CTS - Computer Technology Specialists has supported Melbourne SMBs since 2000. Contact: 1300 790 780, hello@cts.au, L30 - 35 Collins St Melbourne 3000.

Certifications, affiliations and technology partners

Microsoft Partner, ACSC Essential Eight aligned, ISO 27001 practices, NBN Business Accredited Adviser, Cisco Partner, Dell Partner, HPE Partner, Arcserve Partner, Broadcom Partner, Kyocera Partner.

Backup strategy

An effective backup strategy follows the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of data, on two different media types, with one copy offsite. For Melbourne SMBs, this typically means a local backup to NAS or server for fast restore, a second copy replicated to cloud storage for offsite resilience, and a third copy retained in immutable storage to protect against ransomware that attempts to delete or encrypt backup data. CTS designs backup strategies aligned to each client's data volumes, recovery time requirements, retention obligations, and budget. Line-of-business application databases — MYOB, Xero, practice management software, and SQL Server databases — require application-aware backups that capture data in a consistent state, not just file-level copies.

RTO and RPO planning

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) defines how quickly systems must be restored after a failure — the maximum acceptable downtime. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) defines how much data the business can afford to lose — the maximum acceptable gap between the last backup and the failure event. A Melbourne accounting firm processing end-of-month payroll may have an RPO of four hours (willing to re-enter up to four hours of transactions) but an RTO of two hours (must have systems running within two hours). A retail business during peak trading may have an RPO of one hour and an RTO of thirty minutes. CTS works with each Melbourne client to define explicit RTO and RPO targets for each system category — critical, important, and standard — and designs backup and recovery infrastructure that can meet those targets in a real failure scenario.

Immutable backups

Immutable backups cannot be modified, deleted, or encrypted after they are written — making them immune to ransomware that attempts to destroy backup data before deploying its encryption payload. Modern ransomware variants specifically target backup solutions and attempt to delete VSS shadow copies, terminate backup agent processes, and encrypt backup repositories. Immutable storage using Write Once Read Many (WORM) technology — available through Azure Blob Storage with immutability policies, Arcserve UDP Cloud, and similar platforms — ensures backup data remains recoverable even when the production environment is fully compromised. CTS configures immutable backup retention periods aligned to each client's RPO requirements and tests recovery from immutable storage at least annually.

Microsoft 365 backup

Microsoft does not automatically back up Microsoft 365 data — Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams data is retained in the Microsoft platform but is not protected against accidental deletion, malicious deletion, or ransomware with the same point-in-time restore capability as a dedicated backup. Microsoft's native recycle bin and version history provide limited recovery windows (typically 30 to 93 days) that may be insufficient for Melbourne businesses with longer retention obligations or that discover a data loss event weeks after it occurred. CTS configures and manages dedicated Microsoft 365 backup for Melbourne clients using Microsoft 365 Backup or third-party platforms covering Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams — providing point-in-time restore to any date within the retention period.

Server recovery

Server recovery from a bare-metal failure, storage corruption, or virtualisation platform issue is among the most time-critical IT events a Melbourne business faces. CTS implements server backup solutions using Veeam Backup and Replication or Azure Backup for virtual machines, providing bare-metal restore capability to the same or different hardware and virtual-to-physical and physical-to-virtual recovery options. Recovery runbooks document the exact steps required to restore each server — boot sequence, application start order, dependency checks, and verification tests — so recovery can proceed without relying on the memory of a specific engineer. CTS tests server recovery procedures at least annually for managed IT clients, confirming that the documented RTO is achievable in practice.

Ransomware recovery

Ransomware recovery requires more than clean backups — it requires a defined containment and recovery sequence that prevents re-infection, preserves forensic evidence, and restores systems in the correct order. CTS ransomware recovery runbooks cover: network isolation procedures to contain spread immediately on detection; forensic evidence preservation before remediation begins; identification of the infection vector to prevent reinfection after restore; clean environment rebuild including OS reinstall and application redeployment where necessary; restore from the most recent clean backup verified against the known infection timeline; post-recovery security hardening; and ACSC Australian Cyber Security Centre and cyber insurer notification where required. For managed IT clients, CTS engages within 30 minutes of a ransomware P1 incident and targets critical system restoration within four to eight hours from clean immutable backups.

Disaster recovery testing

A disaster recovery plan that has never been tested is a theory, not a plan. CTS conducts annual DR tests for managed IT clients — restoring servers, validating application functionality, and measuring actual recovery time against the documented RTO. Tabletop exercises walk through failure scenarios with the client's team, testing the decision-making process and communications plan without requiring a full production restore. Where an actual restore test reveals gaps between the theoretical RTO and the practical recovery time, CTS adjusts the infrastructure, runbooks, or backup configuration to close the gap before a real event occurs. DR test results are documented and retained — providing evidence for cyber insurance renewals, board reporting, and regulatory audits.

Business continuity planning

Disaster recovery focuses on restoring IT systems. Business continuity planning (BCP) addresses how the business continues to operate while IT systems are being restored — and what happens if recovery takes longer than the RTO. CTS assists Melbourne businesses with the IT components of business continuity planning: identifying which applications and data are essential for minimum viable operations, documenting manual workarounds for critical processes that can be used during system outages, defining communication trees and decision authorities for incident response, and integrating IT recovery procedures with the broader organisational response plan. For professional services firms — legal, accounting, financial planning — business continuity documentation is increasingly required by regulators, insurers, and enterprise clients.

Book a free disaster recovery audit

CTS provides a free disaster recovery audit for Melbourne businesses covering: current backup coverage and gaps, RTO and RPO assessment against documented or implied requirements, immutable backup status, Microsoft 365 data protection review, recovery runbook existence and currency, and date of last tested recovery. The audit produces a written findings report with prioritised recommendations. Most Melbourne SMBs discover significant gaps between their assumed recovery capability and their actual recovery capability during a DR audit — particularly around Microsoft 365 data protection and the absence of tested recovery runbooks. Contact CTS on 1300 790 780 or hello@cts.au to arrange a free DR audit.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between RTO and RPO?

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is the maximum acceptable time to restore systems after a failure. RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is the maximum acceptable data loss — how far back the most recent clean backup can be. CTS documents explicit RTO and RPO targets for each system category for every managed IT client.

What is an immutable backup?

An immutable backup cannot be modified, deleted, or encrypted after it is written. Immutable backups using WORM (Write Once Read Many) storage ensure backup data remains recoverable even when ransomware has fully compromised the production environment and attempted to delete standard backups.

Does Microsoft back up our Microsoft 365 data?

No. Microsoft retains Microsoft 365 data in the platform but does not provide point-in-time backup. Native recycle bins and version history have retention limits (typically 30–93 days) that may be insufficient. CTS configures dedicated Microsoft 365 backup covering Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams.

How often should disaster recovery be tested?

CTS recommends at least annual DR testing for all managed IT clients, combining a full restore test of critical servers with a tabletop exercise for the broader recovery process. Results are documented for cyber insurance and regulatory audit purposes.

What happens if CTS managed client is hit by ransomware?

CTS engages within 30 minutes, isolates affected systems, preserves forensic evidence, identifies the infection vector, rebuilds from clean immutable backups, and manages ACSC and cyber insurer notifications. Critical system restoration typically takes four to eight hours from clean backups.

Does CTS provide business continuity planning?

Yes. CTS assists with the IT components of business continuity planning — identifying minimum viable operations requirements, documenting manual workarounds, defining communication trees, and integrating IT recovery procedures with the organisational response plan.

What backup software does CTS use?

CTS primarily uses Veeam Backup and Replication for on-premises and virtualised server environments, Azure Backup for cloud workloads, and Microsoft 365 Backup or Arcserve UDP Cloud for Microsoft 365 data. Backup platform selection is based on environment requirements and existing infrastructure.