Tony Underwood on Omaha Offices That Never Test a Backup Restore

I’m Tony Underwood. I own Cambium Data, an Omaha managed IT company I started in 2009. I’m CCIE #7112, and I started in IT in the Navy.

Most of the firms I work with are legal, dental, and other professional offices with about 15 to 120 people. In that size range, a failed server or a wiped laptop can mean a week of lost billable time if the recovery plan only exists on a status screen.

I’m not talking about offices with no backup product at all. Plenty of Omaha businesses already bought something. The software is installed, the dashboard is green, and someone gets an email when a job fails. That’s good, but it still isn’t the same as knowing you can get the data back.

What I ask for is simple. Show me the last time someone restored a file, a mailbox, or a full system on purpose. Not during an emergency. Do it on a quiet afternoon, with enough time to notice if the encryption key is missing, the cloud seat is wrong, or the backup was quietly skipping the one share everyone depends on.

If that test has never happened, the green light is only telling you that a job ran. It isn’t telling you that Monday morning will come back.

That gap shows up in ordinary situations. A partner’s laptop dies the night before a hearing. Accounting needs last quarter’s QuickBooks file after a bad update. Someone deletes a shared folder and empties the recycle bin. The backup console still looks healthy.

The restore is where you find out whether the retention was too short, whether the archive was never included, or whether the only person who knew the password left six months ago.

I founded Cambium Data in Omaha in 2009, and I still get pulled into the recoveries when they matter. The Navy habit never left me. When a system fails, you fix it, then you find out why it broke. A restore test is how you find the break before the break finds you.

If you already have an IT person or another firm, take this as a checklist, not a sales pitch to fire them. Ask when the last successful restore was, what was restored, and who can do it if that person is on vacation.

If the answers are clear, you’re ahead of most offices I walk into. If the answers are vague, you have a project, not a panic, as long as you start it before you need it.

For Omaha owners who want a second set of eyes, I still offer a free 20-minute network assessment. I look at the obvious infrastructure issues, including whether backups are completing and whether anyone has proven a restore. You keep the notes whether you hire Cambium Data or not.

Call [phone] or email [e-mail] and ask for Tony Underwood.

Cambium Data
6542 S 118th St
Omaha, NE 68137
[phone]

More about me and the company:
https://tonyunderwood.us/press
https://tonyunderwood.us
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyunderwoodomaha/
https://www.cambiumdata.com