Backup & Recovery
Rebuilding resilience: a recovery architecture that cut risk by 50%
Overview
Led a critical transformation programme to modernise a major Financial Services client’s backup and recovery architecture, strengthening ransomware resilience and meeting stringent regulatory expectations. Delivered a multi‑layered, cyber‑secure recovery model that uplifted operational reliability and passed regulatory assurance with zero critical findings.
The client’s legacy backup estate lacked resilience, had inconsistent recovery patterns and did not meet evolving ransomware or regulatory requirements. A modern, defensible and auditable backup and recovery architecture was urgently needed.
I was responsible for designing and delivering a resilient, cyber‑secure, multi‑layered backup and recovery model aligned to business impact, operational risk and regulatory compliance.
Data Criticality & Business Impact Alignment
Conducted enterprise‑wide data classification and criticality assessments.
Worked with data owners to identify regulatory constraints and map datasets to business processes.
Ensured recovery strategy reflected real business impact and tolerance levels.
Recovery Strategy & RPO/RTO Definition
Translated business tolerance into technical RPO/RTO targets.
Defined recovery tiers and mapped applications and datasets accordingly.
Ensured alignment with cyber‑resilience, operational risk and regulatory expectations.
Layered Backup Architecture Design
Designed immutable backup layers (WORM, object locks) and air‑gapped/offline copies.
Implemented application‑consistent snapshots for databases and VMs.
Architected cross‑region replication for DR readiness and enforced encryption across all backup flows.
Technology Selection & Pattern Design
Evaluated and selected backup platforms, vaulting patterns and replication technologies.
Ensured compatibility with existing infrastructure, cloud strategy and regulatory requirements.
Validation, Integrity & Recovery Assurance
Implemented automated backup validation and integrity checks.
Designed isolated “cleanroom” recovery environments for safe restoration.
Integrated backup and recovery runbooks into operational processes.
Conducted full recovery testing cycles with evidence capture for audit and regulatory review.
35%
improvement in backup reliability across critical systems
48
Uplifted ransomware resilience across 48 critical applications, cutting exposure to destructive attacks.
100%
0 critical findings in regulatory assurance reviews
50%
Delivered a recovery architecture that cut client‑reported resilience risk by 50%