Key points
How to conduct restore simulation drills that involve non-technical client stakeholders
- Restore simulation drills build client trust by providing visible proof that data can be recovered within agreed-upon timelines.
- These drills help identify and fix process and communication gaps before a real data loss incident occurs.
- Success requires defining clear, measurable targets for recovery time (RTO) and data loss (RPO) with the client beforehand.
- The simulation process must be demonstrated visually and explained in non-technical terms that focus on business impact.
- Capturing stakeholder feedback after the drill is critical for ensuring communication clarity and addressing concerns.
- All outcomes and lessons learned from the drill must be documented to improve plans and maintain a record of readiness.
Once you’ve established your backup and restore procedures, and are regularly testing backup readiness, you need to demonstrate this capability with client-facing restore simulation drills.
Internal IT teams and managed service providers (MSPs) need to be able to prove to colleagues and clients that their backup systems work. This builds confidence with non-technical stakeholders that their data is protected, and that in the event of data loss, it can be restored within agreed timelines.
This guide explains how MSPs can run restore drills with clients, helping to build trust and solidify customer relationships by validating the recovery process and ensuring your readiness is effectively communicated.
Why you need to run restore simulation drills with clients and stakeholders
If a backup fails to restore in a timely fashion, or the data in it is stale and no longer relevant, it may as well have not been created in the first place. A backup strategy, and the technologies used to implement it, must ensure that RTO and RPO thresholds are met. Clients must also be kept fully informed of all issues affecting their data, including understanding what happens when something does go wrong.
Running restore simulation drills with clients also provides IT teams and MSPs with several advantages over simply running their own regular restore readiness tests: it prevents overconfidence and overpromising on intended outcomes, builds trust with your clients using visible proof that your strategy and implementation works, and strengthens compliance and audit preparedness by keeping all parties informed.
The process also helps identify process and communication gaps before a real incident occurs, allowing you to make sure all aspects of your strategy are clear and fully understood. Clients should understand how and when they will be notified as an incident progresses, and you should focus communication on the metrics that matter to them such as time, productivity impact, and business continuity. This way, non-technical partners are never left confused or frustrated by unexplained technical backup reports.
Prerequisites for disaster recovery backup testing
Before running restore simulation reviews, you should make sure that your backup solution is fully working and monitored. You should have clearly defined RTO and RPO thresholds for all data (it may differ for different kinds of data depending on its purpose or location). All backup information from strategy to infrastructure, along with your restore readiness plan, should be thoroughly documented. Included in this should be the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for recovering your data, as they will be followed during your client restore simulation drill.
You will also need test or sandbox environments to run these restores in, so as not to affect production work. Finally, you’ll need to agree with your client on the frequency of restore simulation drills (ideally at least annually and after significant infrastructure changes), and ensure that you’re prepared by running your own internal tests to verify restore readiness.
Step #1. Select a real-world scenario
You need to communicate the recovery scenario in terms that your client will understand. For example, restoring the most recent full backup of an accounting database, restoring all the files on a file server after a ransomware attack, or recovering an accidentally deleted mailbox.
It must be clear to them how old the recovered data will be, and specifically what will be involved in the recovery process. Provide as much detail as they will need to make business decisions and inform employees, but keep it non-technical, for example, “If system X fails, we aim to restore it within Y hours with no more than Z hours of data loss.”
Step #2. Define success criteria
Define the targets you are expected to demonstrate that you can meet, and ensure all stakeholders are in agreement and that this is formalized in contracts. Agree with stakeholders on measurable goals before running the drill:
- Time-based targets (RTO): How quickly the system should be restored.
- Data-based targets (RPO): How much data can be lost without major business disruption.
- Outcome expectations: What stakeholders should expect at the end of the drill, for example, “Users can log in and access critical files again, but only files that are up-to-date as of 10 pm the previous day”.
Your restore simulation drill should then demonstrate that these timelines and expectations can be practically met.
Step #3. Prepare a simple walkthrough script
Plan your drill in steps as they will be communicated to your client, so that what you say and what you do are in alignment and there are no gaps. For example:
- Announce the scenario: “We are simulating a failed server.”
- Identify the relevant backup source.
- Launch the restore to a safe simulated environment.
- Validate the result, for example, by demonstrating that files open, applications launch, or emails appear.
- Note the time taken compared to the agreed RTO.
By keeping all information provided accessible to non-technical attendees, expectations can be correctly set, and eventually met.
Step #4. Demonstrate the process visually
While running your simulation drill, explain what is happening.
When briefing stakeholders, use flowcharts showing how the sequence will progress. If you are working with stakeholders in person, explain what is happening on-screen in basic terms. If you’re working asynchronously, screenshots or recordings can be provided instead to prove that the intended outcomes were reached.
On the completion of a successful restore, timeline diagrams can be created to show when the simulated restore began and completed, when full service was theoretically restored for end users, and any other significant events (including interruptions or unexpected problems that will be addressed when you next revise your backup and restore plans).
Business stakeholders will most likely understand the business impact of an outage rather than the technical details themselves, and will want a results-focused discussion that focuses on the practical impacts to their productivity, and the potential value of lost data.
Step #5. Facilitate feedback from stakeholders
After a drill (assuming it’s successful), you need to make sure that it has met client expectations. You should also capture more detailed feedback regarding the clarity and effectiveness of your communication, and that stakeholders are happy to receive the same level of discourse during a real event. If it seems like there hasn’t been a full meeting of the minds, identify where additional documentation, attentiveness, or training is required.
If the drill has failed, you must immediately confirm and revise all backup and restore processes and mechanisms to identify and rectify the cause of the failure. You must then reassure clients that this was an edge case that has now been fully covered with your revised business continuity and disaster recovery strategies.
It is critical that clients feel heard, that their concerns are addressed, and that they know you are prepared; a calmer client makes it a lot easier to focus technician resources where they are needed during an outage.
Step #6. Document outcomes and lessons learned
Document everything that occurred with clean, client-facing documentation that targets their technical level and priorities. Internal documentation can be more detailed. At a minimum, you should cover the scenario tested, actual timelines compared to RTO and RPO targets, and any issues that were encountered, as well as how they were resolved. You should also document stakeholder feedback.
Documentation platforms assist with the creation and ongoing organization and management of client documentation, which can become quite extensive as MSPs deal with an increasing number of customers with growing deployments.
Step #7. Establish a recurring simulation cadence
You should establish a schedule of restore simulation drills that reflects the RPO targets of the different kinds of data you back up.
While not all simulations will be client-facing, you should ensure that critical systems are demonstrated to clients at least annually and after major infrastructure changes. This can be made easier by providing post-factum recordings and reports.
NinjaOne backs up and restores data from anywhere, and provides complete monitoring and auditing
Demonstrate your restore-readiness with simulation drills backed by NinjaOne Backup. Provided as part of a complete MSP platform including remote monitoring and management (RMM), mobile device management (MDM), and endpoint management, NinjaOne also includes built-in helpdesk and documentation.
If an incident occurs, the right technician can be immediately notified and begin restore procedures, and stakeholders can take the necessary business measures to mitigate the impact while service is restored. Everything is monitored and logged so that the effectiveness of your backup strategy and infrastructure can be proven, whether during a simulated event or a real emergency.
