# First steps

## Define your backup requirements

Designing an effective backup environment starts with careful planning. Before configuring schedules, it is essential to define the scope of protection and clarify organizational needs. By answering the following questions, you will establish a strong foundation for your backup schema:

1. **Deployment location:** where will you deploy your management service?
2. **Data scope:** what types of data should be protected?
3. **Protected environments:** which environments require coverage? (e.g., workstations, servers, virtual machines, **Microsoft 365**, **Git** repositories, **Jira**, databases, etc.)
4. **Storage destination:** where will your backups be stored?
5. **Backup frequency:** how often should backup tasks be performed?
6. **Exclusion rules:** is there any data that should **not** be included in the backup?
7. **Security measures:** do you need to encrypt and/or compress your backups?
8. **Operating systems:** which operating systems require protection?
9. **Policy alignment:** how does your organization’s security policy influence backup planning?
10. **Retention period:** for how long you want your backups to be retained?

Once you have answered these questions, you are ready to begin working with **Xopero ONE**.


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