When a server goes down, the clock doesn't stop for a law firm — it just stops counting in the firm's favor. Attorneys and staff can't bill for time they can't work, and unlike many businesses, a firm can't simply reopen tomorrow and pick up where it left off. Court deadlines and client expectations don't pause for a hardware failure.

The real question isn't whether a server or system will eventually run into trouble. It's how quickly the firm is working again when it does.

How We Back Up Your Server — and Why the Verification Step Matters

Every hour during the business day, a full image-level backup of your server is captured — not just your files, but the entire system state. That alone isn't what makes this approach exceptional.

What makes it exceptional is what happens next. Each backup is automatically restored into an isolated virtual environment, and the system actually boots. A screenshot of the login screen is captured as proof. Every single hour.

That means we're not assuming your backup worked because it ran without an error message. We have visual confirmation — every hour — that your most recent backup can actually be restored and launched. It's the difference between a parachute that's been packed and one that's been tested. No additional step exists to more thoroughly verify that a backup is real and recoverable.

What an Outage Actually Costs in Billable Hours

Every hour a firm's systems are down is an hour that can't be billed — multiplied across every attorney and staff member who needed those systems to work. A half-day outage across a handful of timekeepers adds up to real, unrecoverable time, on top of whatever it costs to catch back up afterward. The goal of a good backup and recovery setup isn't to promise an outage will never happen. It's to make sure that when one does, it costs the firm under an hour instead of a day.

What This Actually Means for Your Firm, Day to Day

  • Your files exist safely away from your office, so a fire, theft, or equipment failure at your building can't take your data down with it
  • Every hour during the business day, your entire server state is backed up and automatically verified — not just assumed to be good
  • When a server fails, our response is measured in minutes, not hours — we're alerted immediately and begin triage within seconds of a critical failure
  • If our assessment confirms the server cannot be brought back up quickly in its normal state, we don't wait — your most recent verified backup is mounted and your team is back to work, typically within the same hour the failure occurred
  • We watch for signs that a backup itself has been compromised — by a virus or ransomware — so a bad copy never quietly becomes the only copy you have

None of this requires anything from your staff day-to-day. It runs in the background, and the entire point is that your team never has to think about it — until the day they need it to have already been working.

Why This Matters More for a Law Firm Than Most Businesses

A missed deadline caused by a technology failure is still a missed deadline in the eyes of a court. A lost or unrecoverable client file isn't just an inconvenience — it can touch a firm's professional responsibility obligations directly. For most businesses, downtime is frustrating. For a law firm, it can become a client-facing, and sometimes ethics-facing, problem. That's the standard a firm's backup and recovery plan should actually be held to.

Frequently Asked Questions

Realistically, how fast could our firm be working again after a server failure?

Typically within the same hour the failure happens. When a server goes down or becomes unstable, we're alerted immediately. Our first step is a rapid assessment — sometimes recoverable issues are fixed on the spot in minutes. If the server is determined to be in a failed state, we move to the most recent verified backup. Because every hourly backup has already been tested and confirmed bootable, there's no uncertainty about whether recovery will work. In most cases, your team is back at their desks before the hour is out.

What if the problem isn't a server failure, but something like a virus or an accidentally deleted file?

The same backup system covers those scenarios too. A recent, verified copy of your data means an accidental deletion or an infected file can be rolled back, rather than becoming a permanent loss.

Does our staff need to do anything to keep this working?

No. This is meant to run entirely in the background. The only time it should require anything from your team is if something actually goes wrong — and even then, the goal is to make that process as simple as possible for your staff.

What does a service like this typically cost?

We build backup and recovery into a flat-rate managed IT plan rather than pricing it separately, so cost stays predictable and tied to your firm's actual size and needs. The specifics are best discussed directly for your firm.

Next Step

If you'd like a plain, specific answer about where your firm's backups actually stand, we offer a 15-minute call to see if we're a fit — no pitch, no obligation. Managing partners and office administrators can reach us at 325-643-8184 or through the contact form at apollocomputers.com.