The five stages of backup grief–don’t drown your sorrows this St. Patrick’s Day!
Ah, St. Patrick’s Day—the time for good cheer, great company, and maybe a drink (or two). But while you’re raising a glass, IT teams everywhere might also be doing the same—not to celebrate, however, but to forget. Forget the failed backups, the painfully slow recoveries, and the “How could this happen?” conversations with leadership.
If you’ve ever suffered through a slow recovery (or worse, lost critical data), you might recognize these five stages of backup grief. But before you drown your sorrows—we’ve got a way to skip the suffering and keep your systems running smoother than a perfectly poured Guinness.
1. Denial—“My backups are good enough.”
You tell yourself that nightly backups will save you. “Surely, we’re covered.”
Then disaster strikes, and you realize yesterday’s backup isn’t coming back fast enough. Users are panicking, and you’re left praying for a miracle.
2. Anger—“Why is recovery taking so long?!”
The business is grinding to a halt, and you’re watching the progress bar move slower than a parade float. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and your boss is not-so-patiently waiting for answers.
3. Bargaining—“Maybe if we just upgrade our backup system?”
Maybe bigger storage, newer hardware, or a faster network will fix it?
Hate to break it to you—but throwing more money at legacy backup won’t make recovery instant. What you really need is continuous data protection (CDP), not just snapshots.
4. Depression—“We lost how much data? And we’re still down?”
Days of downtime, gigabytes (or terabytes) of lost data, and mounting costs.
At this point, you’re questioning your life choices—and whether you should just open that emergency bottle of Irish whiskey.
5. Acceptance (a.k.a. Zerto enlightenment)—“Wait … I can recover almost instantly with near zero data loss?”
Congratulations, you’ve seen the light! With Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, you don’t just back up data—you continuously protect it. That means:
- Real-time replication (drastically reduced data loss)
- Instant recovery (no more waiting)
- Cyber resilience (no more ransomware nightmares)
Skip the grief—choose Zerto.
This St. Patrick’s Day, don’t drown your sorrows over lost data. Choose a smarter, faster way to recover and keep your business running—because the best downtime … is no downtime.
Ready to see how Zerto can help? Check out our hands-on labs or get in touch with us today!
Michael Nassis 
