Air Gapped Backup Solutions Ransomware Genuinely Can't Reach

Air gapped backup solutions for when everything else has been compromised

Modern ransomware doesn't just encrypt your live systems — it actively hunts for connected backup infrastructure and targets that too, on the reasonable assumption that a business able to restore from backup has no reason to pay a ransom. Immutable, offsite cloud backup defends against most of that, but a genuinely sophisticated attacker with enough time inside a network can, in rare cases, find ways to interfere with backup systems that remain reachable over a network connection. Air gapped backup solutions remove that risk entirely for your most critical data by keeping a copy that is physically or logically disconnected from your network by default — no live connection for malware to travel across, no credentials it can use to reach the backup, because there's no path there at all.

We don't position air gapped backup as a replacement for cloud backup and monitoring — it's the last layer, sitting behind 24/7 monitoring, EDR endpoint protection and immutable cloud backup, which are included as standard on our managed IT plans from £20 per user per month. For most UK SMEs, that combination is more than sufficient. For businesses handling especially sensitive data, subject to stricter insurer or regulatory requirements, or that have already been through a serious ransomware incident, an air gapped copy adds a genuinely offline failsafe on top.

The term "air gapped" gets used loosely in the security industry, and it's worth being precise about it, because a lot of what gets marketed as air gapped backup is really just a separate server on the same network, still reachable at all times by anything that can compromise a set of credentials. A genuine air gap means there is, for most of the time, no network path between your live systems and the backup copy at all — not a firewall rule, not restricted permissions, an actual absence of connectivity. That's a meaningfully stronger guarantee, and it's the standard we hold our own air gapped backup solutions to.

Air gapped backup vs. immutable cloud backup

Immutable cloud backup — a copy that can't be altered or deleted for a set retention period, even by a compromised administrator account — already defends against the vast majority of ransomware scenarios UK SMEs actually face, and it's included as standard on our managed IT plans. Air gapped backup solutions go a step further for a narrower set of circumstances: data so critical, or a threat model so specific, that even a remote possibility of a connected backup being compromised is worth designing out entirely. For most businesses, immutable cloud backup with 24/7 monitoring is genuinely sufficient. Air gapping is the additional layer for businesses that have decided the cost of getting this specific decision wrong is high enough to justify the extra step.

Air Gapped Backup Solutions Across the UK

Wherever your business is based in the UK, air gapped backup solutions are designed and verified the same way: disconnected by default, reconnected only under controlled, logged conditions. We deliver air gapped backup remotely for businesses across the UK, from our base in the City of London, with on-site support in London for any physical media handling involved.