Setting Backup Retention Policies

Keeping every backup forever is expensive and unnecessary. Deleting backups too soon leaves you without recovery options. A retention policy defines how long each backup copy stays available.

A common tiered approach:

- Daily backups kept for 7–14 days for quick recovery from recent mistakes or corruption.

- Weekly backups kept for 4–8 weeks to recover issues not noticed immediately.

- Monthly backups kept for 3–12 months for longer-term recovery needs.

- Annual backups kept for several years for compliance or tax purposes, depending on your industry.

Retention should be driven by two factors:

- Recovery needs. How far back might you realistically need to go? A corrupted file might go unnoticed for weeks.

- Compliance. Some industries (healthcare, legal, financial) have regulatory retention requirements that override storage cost considerations.

Review your retention policy annually or whenever your business changes. A policy set at launch may no longer fit after adding new applications, employees, or regulatory obligations.