A backup nobody has tested
is just a file. This agent proves it restores.
A backup that has never been restored is a belief, not a fact, and the moment most teams discover their backup does not actually restore cleanly is during a real incident, which is the worst possible time to find out. A backup and recovery agent runs scheduled backups and regularly test-restores them in an isolated environment, checksum verified, and alerts immediately if a backup or a restore drill does not match what it should.
The role today
Backups usually run on a schedule and get trusted by default, nobody questions whether they actually work until the day they are needed, and that is also the worst possible day to discover a corrupted file, a missing table, or a restore process that was never fully documented. The backup existed; it just did not do the one thing it was there for.
The second cost is that running a real restore drill by hand is disruptive enough, spinning up an environment, restoring into it, checking the result, that teams put it off, and “we should test our backups sometime” becomes a recurring intention that never quite happens.
The third is retention drift: a backup policy set up once rarely gets revisited as the business grows, so storage either balloons with backups nobody needs or, worse, an old backup that mattered quietly ages out before anyone checks whether it should.
What the agent takes over
The agent runs your backups on schedule and, just as importantly, regularly restores them into an isolated scratch environment to check they actually work, not just that a file exists. Every backup and every restore gets checksum-verified, and if either step fails, the team is alerted within the hour, not discovered during an actual incident weeks or months later.
It keeps a full log of every backup, every drill, and every result, so when someone finally does need a real restore, there is a recent, verified track record showing it works, rather than hope.
Typical scope: databases, file storage, and any system with an exportable state. Retention policy follows the schedule your team sets based on your actual recovery needs.
What stays with humans
Deciding retention policy, how long backups are kept and how often drills run, is a decision your team makes based on your actual risk tolerance. Actually invoking a production restore after a real incident is always a deliberate human action, never something this agent triggers on its own, even when it has verified the backup is good.
Guards
Test restores always run in an isolated environment, never on production, no exceptions. Every backup and every drill is checksum-verified, not just assumed to have succeeded because the job completed. Any failure, backup or restore, alerts within the hour. A full, timestamped log exists for every backup and every drill, ready for an actual incident or just an audit.
Price and timeline
| Option | Price | What it covers | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency runs it | from $1,800 + support plan | Agent built and run by us, monthly backup and drill report | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Full control, handover-ready | from $3,000 | Same agent on your own storage and infrastructure, documented drill process, your team runs it | 2 to 3 weeks |
Running cost is usually $15 to $50 a month in storage and compute, depending on data volume and drill frequency.
Related
See the AI agents service page and automation-everything for the surrounding build. Within this group: legacy migration agent relies on the same backup-first discipline, and DevOps and release agent and security monitoring agent cover adjacent operational ground. For a related one-time setup, see automate backup restore drills and automate backups monitoring for SaaS data. Real recovery work behind this page: the sports nutrition sales case study, where 571 of 571 orders were recovered from a raw chat history when no clean backup existed.
Not actually sure your backups would restore cleanly? Get in touch and we will run a real drill first.
FAQ
How much does a backup and recovery agent cost?
From $1,800 to wire into one system with scheduled backups and test restores, live in 1 to 2 weeks. Multiple systems or more frequent drill schedules usually run $2,800 to $4,000.
How long before it is running real backups and drills?
1 to 2 weeks: wiring into your systems and building the isolated test-restore environment is most of it, then the first drill confirms everything works before the schedule runs unattended.
Which systems does it work with?
Your database, file storage, and any system with an exportable state, backed up to storage you control (your own cloud account or server), with test restores run in a scratch environment that never touches production.
What happens if a backup or a restore drill fails?
It alerts within the hour, not whenever someone next checks. A failed backup gets retried and escalated if it fails again; a failed restore drill means the backup itself needs attention before it is trusted for a real incident.
Does the test restore ever touch our live data?
No. Test restores always run in an isolated, scratch environment, never on production. A real restore, if an actual incident happens, is still a human decision your team makes deliberately, not something this agent triggers on its own.