Backup & Recovery

Data backup and disaster recovery procedures

Backup & Recovery

BindPilot maintains automated backups and disaster recovery procedures to ensure your data is always safe.

Backup Strategy

Backup Frequency

  • Full backups: Daily (once per day, 2 AM MT)
  • Incremental backups: Hourly (captures changes since last backup)
  • Transaction logs: Every 5 minutes (for point-in-time recovery)

Backup Retention

| Backup Type | Retention Period | Purpose | |-------------|------------------|---------| | Daily | 30 days | Recover from accidental deletion | | Weekly | 12 weeks | Recover from data corruption | | Monthly | 12 months | Compliance/audit (long-term) | | Transaction logs | 7 days | Point-in-time recovery |

Backup Encryption

  • At rest: AES-256 (encrypted on disk)
  • In transit: TLS 1.3 (encrypted when transferred)
  • Encryption keys: Stored separately from backups

Even if a backup is stolen, encrypted data is unreadable without the key.

Geographic Redundancy

Backups are stored in multiple US geographic regions:

  • Primary: us-east-1 (Virginia, AWS)
  • Secondary: us-west-2 (Oregon, AWS)
  • Tertiary: us-central (Chicago, backup provider)

Why multiple regions?

  • If Virginia data center fails, we restore from Oregon
  • If AWS entire region fails, we have off-AWS backup
  • If carrier bomb goes off in Virginia, Oregon backup survives
  • Disaster recovery time: < 4 hours

Recovery Time & Data Loss

RTO (Recovery Time Objective)

Time to restore full service: < 4 hours

  • Detected outage: < 2 minutes (automated monitoring)
  • Triage & decision: 5 minutes
  • Restore from backup: 10–30 minutes (depending on size)
  • Verification & testing: 30 minutes
  • Resume normal operations: < 4 hours

For data deletions (customer request): Typically < 1 hour

RPO (Recovery Point Objective)

Data loss if disaster: < 1 hour

  • Hourly incremental backups mean max 1 hour of data loss
  • Real-time transaction logs (every 5 min) allow finer recovery
  • Most scenarios: < 15 minutes of data loss (worst case)

Examples:

  • Server fails at 3 PM: Restore from 2 PM backup + transaction logs (recover up to ~2:50 PM)
  • Database corrupts: Restore from yesterday's clean backup (recover all data from yesterday)

Backup Testing

BindPilot tests backups monthly:

  1. Restore a backup to an isolated test environment
  2. Verify all data restored correctly
  3. Check data integrity (no corruption)
  4. Document results and any issues
  5. Fix any restoration problems

This ensures backups are usable when we need them (not just theoretical).

Disaster Recovery Plan

If a major disaster occurs:

Phase 1: Detection & Triage (5 min)

  • Automated monitoring alerts us (or customer reports issue)
  • On-call engineer assesses severity
  • Determine if disaster recovery is needed

Phase 2: Activation (15 min)

  • Declare disaster recovery mode
  • Spin up alternate environment (Oregon if Virginia down)
  • Begin restoring from latest clean backup

Phase 3: Restoration (30–60 min)

  • Restore data from backup
  • Verify all systems operational
  • Test critical functions (quoting, renewals, logins)
  • Confirm data integrity

Phase 4: Communication (Ongoing)

  • Notify affected customers via email
  • Post updates to status page every 15 min
  • Provide estimated restoration time
  • Confirm when service is restored

Phase 5: Post-Incident (24–48 hours)

  • Root cause analysis (what failed?)
  • Fix the underlying issue
  • Update disaster recovery plan
  • Publish incident report (lessons learned)

Your Data: What You Should Do

BindPilot backs everything up. You should also:

  1. Export your data quarterly

    • Go to Clients > Export > CSV
    • Store in your own secure location
    • Use for your own backups

  2. Keep your own policy archive

    • Download original policy documents
    • Store in secure cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox)
    • Helps if you need historical records

  3. Document your carriers & settings

    • Screenshot your carrier appointments
    • Document renewal Agent settings
    • Screenshot your proposal templates

Disaster Recovery SLA

For Agency customers, we guarantee:

  • RTO: 4-hour restoration time
  • RPO: 1-hour data loss maximum
  • If we miss: Service credit (20% of monthly fee per hour over SLA)

For Starter/Professional customers, same guarantees apply (no credits, but same engineering priority).

Accessing Your Backup Data

If you need to recover:

  1. Accidental deletion — Email support@bindpilot.ai

    • Describe what was deleted
    • Provide approximate date/time
    • We can restore from backup within 1 hour

  2. Suspicion of data corruption — Email support@bindpilot.ai

    • Describe what's wrong
    • Provide affected clients/policies
    • We'll restore from last known-good backup

  3. Full data export (leaving BindPilot) — Download your own export

    • Go to Clients > Export
    • Choose CSV or Excel format
    • Download anytime

FAQ

Q: Can BindPilot restore a specific client's data?

A: Yes. We can restore from any backup point. Email support@bindpilot.ai with the client name and date.

Q: What if I delete a client by accident?

A: We can restore that client and all associated policies from backup within 1 hour.

Q: How long are backups kept?

A: Daily backups for 30 days, weekly for 12 weeks, monthly for 12 months.

Q: Are backups encrypted?

A: Yes. AES-256, same as production database.

Q: Can I download my backup?

A: No, but you can export all your data as CSV anytime (see "Accessing Your Backup Data").

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Last updated: Recently