Schrödinger's Back-up

Before we get into the tech side, first, we have to talk about the cat. Schrödinger’s Cat is a famous thought experiment by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The idea is to place a cat in a sealed box with a small amount of radioactive material and a vial of poison. According to quantum mechanics, until you open the box to look, the cat is in a "superposition." Meaning it is technically both alive and dead at the same time. It’s only the act of observing it that forces the universe to pick a state.

In the world of testing, I borrowed this to describe something untested. A Schrödinger’s Back-up is any data backup that has been "successfully" created but has never been tested or verified. You’ve got a file on a server or a tape in a drawer that says it’s a backup, but until you actually try to restore it, you have no idea if it’s a life-saver or just a bucket of corrupted bits.

Why it’s a risk. It’s a classic case of a false sense of security. Because the "backup job" shows SUCCESS in green on your dashboard, the business thinks it is protected. But as any seasoned tester will tell you. The success of the backup process is irrelevant; only the recovery process matters. If you haven't opened the box (the restore), the backup exists in that superposition quantum state:

How to confirm the actual position? The only way to kill off the risk is through regular recovery testing. This means:

Don’t wait for a production disaster to find out your cat is dead. If you haven't tested your restore process, you don't actually have a backup. You have a superposition of hope.