Description

This curriculum spans the design, operation, and integration of backup systems across on-premises and cloud environments, reflecting the technical and organisational complexity of multi-workshop programs seen in enterprise resilience planning and internal data protection capability builds.

Module 1: Defining Data Protection Requirements and Recovery Objectives

Selecting Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) based on business process criticality and financial impact of downtime, requiring cross-departmental alignment with finance, operations, and legal teams.
Determining Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) for transactional systems by analyzing data volatility and acceptable data loss thresholds, particularly in databases and ERP environments.
Classifying data assets by sensitivity and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) to establish backup frequency, retention, and encryption mandates.
Negotiating data protection SLAs with business units that reflect technical feasibility and infrastructure constraints, avoiding overcommitment.
Documenting data ownership and custody roles to ensure accountability in backup validation and restoration processes.
Mapping backup requirements to system interdependencies, such as clustered applications or microservices, to avoid partial recoveries.

Module 2: Backup Infrastructure Design and Technology Selection

Evaluating backup target options (disk, tape, cloud) based on cost per terabyte, access frequency, and long-term retention needs.
Choosing between agent-based and agentless backup methods considering hypervisor compatibility, performance impact, and OS support.
Designing a scalable backup network topology using dedicated LAN segments or VLANs to prevent production network saturation during backup windows.
Integrating snapshot technologies (e.g., storage array or hypervisor-level) into the backup workflow while managing consistency across multi-disk volumes.
Assessing deduplication strategies—source vs. target—based on WAN bandwidth constraints and backup server CPU capacity.
Validating compatibility of backup software with legacy systems, such as mainframes or custom-built applications lacking standard APIs.

Module 3: Backup Scheduling and Operational Workflows

Constructing backup job schedules that stagger full, incremental, and differential cycles to balance storage consumption and recovery complexity.
Implementing blackout windows for backup operations during peak transaction periods to minimize performance degradation on production systems.
Automating pre- and post-backup scripts to quiesce applications (e.g., SQL Server, Oracle) and ensure data consistency.
Configuring job chaining and dependency logic to prevent downstream backups from executing if upstream jobs fail.
Monitoring job runtimes and failure rates to identify performance bottlenecks or systemic issues in backup infrastructure.
Establishing alert thresholds for job duration, data transfer rates, and error codes to trigger proactive intervention.

Module 4: Data Retention, Archiving, and Lifecycle Management

Defining retention policies based on legal hold requirements, audit cycles, and business record-keeping standards.
Implementing tiered data movement from primary backup storage to secondary or archival tiers using policy-based automation.
Managing tape rotation schemes (e.g., GFS – Grandfather-Father-Son) for offline, air-gapped protection against ransomware.
Validating data integrity during long-term retention through periodic checksum verification and read-back testing.
Handling data disposition workflows to securely erase expired backups in compliance with data privacy regulations.
Documenting chain of custody for physical media transported offsite, including encryption status and access controls.

Module 5: Cloud and Hybrid Backup Integration

Selecting cloud storage classes (e.g., AWS S3 Standard vs. Glacier, Azure Cool Blob) based on recovery urgency and cost.
Configuring secure connectivity to cloud backup targets using private endpoints, VPC peering, or Direct Connect.
Managing egress costs and data retrieval latency when designing cloud-based restore procedures.
Implementing cloud-native backup solutions (e.g., Azure Backup, AWS Backup) while maintaining consistency with on-premises tooling.
Encrypting data in transit and at rest using customer-managed keys (CMKs) to meet compliance and control requirements.
Testing failover and restore operations from cloud backups to validate performance and completeness under real conditions.

Module 6: Security, Access Control, and Threat Mitigation

Enforcing role-based access control (RBAC) on backup systems to prevent unauthorized restore or deletion of backup jobs.
Isolating backup administration accounts and enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce attack surface.
Implementing immutable storage or write-once-read-many (WORM) configurations to protect backups from ransomware encryption.
Monitoring backup logs for anomalous activity, such as mass deletions or unexpected restore requests, using SIEM integration.
Securing backup media during transport using tamper-evident packaging and encrypted drives.
Conducting periodic access reviews to deactivate orphaned or excessive privileges in backup management consoles.

Module 7: Testing, Validation, and Continuous Improvement

Scheduling regular restore drills for critical systems to verify recoverability and meet compliance audit requirements.
Measuring actual RTO and RPO during test recoveries and adjusting backup design to close gaps with SLAs.
Documenting test outcomes and obtaining sign-off from business stakeholders to validate recovery readiness.
Using synthetic full backups to reduce strain on production systems while maintaining efficient restore paths.
Integrating backup performance metrics into capacity planning cycles to forecast storage and bandwidth needs.
Updating backup architecture in response to infrastructure changes, such as migrations to virtualization or cloud platforms.

Module 8: Incident Response and Disaster Recovery Integration

Defining escalation procedures for backup failures that impact RPO or RTO commitments.
Coordinating with disaster recovery teams to ensure backup data is included in site-level failover runbooks.
Establishing criteria for declaring a backup-related incident, such as prolonged job failures or media corruption.
Providing recovery support during cyberattacks by restoring from known-clean backup points and validating data integrity.
Integrating backup status into incident management dashboards for real-time visibility during outages.
Conducting post-incident reviews to identify root causes of backup failures and implement corrective controls.