Remote Offsite IT Backup and Disaster Recovery Services

The scope of the Contract is the provision of Off Site IT Backup and Disaster Recovery Services. The core requirements of the Contract are:

•Comprehensive Hybrid Backup Coverage – Protection for both on-premise servers (physical and virtual) and Microsoft 365 cloud workloads (Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams).

•Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) Protection – Backup and recovery of directory structures, user identities, security groups, and roles to ensure continuity of identity and access management.

•Secure Off-Site Data Storage – All backup data replicated to off-site UK-based data centres or UK GDPR-approved cloud regions, encrypted at rest and in transit (AES-256 minimum).

•Immutable & Ransomware-Protected Storage – Backups stored in immutable or air-gapped form to prevent alteration, deletion, or encryption by malicious actors.

•Active Threat and Malware Scanning – Continuous integrity and antivirus scanning of all backups to prevent the reinjection of infected files during restoration.

•Automated & Scheduled Backups – Policy-driven backups with daily incremental and weekly full backups, covering approximately 15TB of data.

•Granular and Full-System Recovery – Ability to restore entire systems, virtual machines, individual files, or Microsoft 365 items with minimal downtime.

•Defined RPO and RTO Targets – Recovery Point Objective (RPO) ≤ 15 minutes; Recovery Time Objective (RTO) ≤ 4 hours for critical workloads.

•Centralised Monitoring and Reporting – Unified dashboard and regular reporting on backup status, success rates, storage capacity, and security alerts.

•Disaster Recovery and Failover Testing – Annual or quarterly DR testing for both on-prem and cloud workloads, with documented outcomes and improvement actions.

•Business Continuity Support – Assistance with recovery planning, testing, and post-incident review.

•Compliance and Assurance – Provider certified to ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus, operating within UK GDPR and NCSC guidelines.

•Scalability and Futureproofing – Capacity to scale storage and add new workloads (e.g. Azure VMs, SaaS systems) without major service disruption.

•24/7 Support and Incident Response – Access to a UK-based service desk and escalation for high-severity incidents.

• AI-based anomaly detection for early ransomware or corruption warnings.

•Self-service restore portal for authorised staff.

•Carbon-neutral or energy-efficient data centres to support Pioneer’s sustainability objectives.

•Integration with your ITSM system for automated incident alerting and reporting.