At the heart of this post is Kairos IMS, an innovative Impact Management System designed to empower human-serving nonprofits and social impact organizations. Co-developed by the Urban League of Broward County and our trusted technology partner, Impactful, Kairos IMS reduces administrative burdens, enhances holistic care, and enables organizations to leverage data for increased agility and seamless service delivery. In this blog series, we’ll take a closer look at the powerful technologies that fuel Kairos IMS, from Azure services to security frameworks, offering insight into how modern infrastructure supports mission-driven impact. Click here to learn more.
As nonprofits continue to embrace cloud technology to enhance their day-to-day and better serve their communities, protecting critical data becomes more important than ever. Whether it’s donor records, program data, or volunteer tracking, the risk of accidental deletion or corruption is real. That’s why features like Point-in-Time Restore (PITR) in Microsoft Azure play a vital role in ensuring your data stays safe—and your mission stays on track.
What Is Point-in-Time Restore?
Point-in-Time Restore is a feature in Azure that allows you to recover a database to a specific moment in the past—down to the second. Think of it like hitting "rewind" on your database. Whether it's due to human error, application issues, or malicious activity, PITR provides a safety net by allowing you to restore data to a time before the incident occurred.
Services in Azure that support Point-in-Time Restore:
- Azure SQL Database
- This is the most common use case. PITR allows you to restore a database to any second within the retention period (up to 35 days by default).
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Single Server
- Supports PITR with up to 35-day retention.
- Azure Database for MySQL – Single Server
- Also supports PITR for recovering from accidental changes.
- Azure Cosmos DB (with Continuous Backup)
- PITR is available if you enable continuous backup. You can restore to any point within the past 30 days.
What PITR is not available for (as of now):
- Azure Blob Storage (uses versioning and soft delete instead)
- Azure Files
- Azure Virtual Machines (use backup snapshots and recovery services vault)
- Azure Key Vault or Azure App Services (require other recovery strategies)
Why Nonprofits Should Care About PITR
Nonprofits often operate with limited IT staff and budgets, making automated and reliable data protection solutions essential. Here’s how PITR benefits your organization:
- Peace of Mind: Mistakes happen. PITR ensures you can recover from accidental deletions or changes without major downtime.
- Minimal Disruption: Restore your Azure SQL Database or other supported resources without disrupting other parts of your cloud environment.
- Compliance Support: If you handle donor information or health records, maintaining recoverability helps with data protection regulations.
How Does PITR Work in Azure?
Azure automatically creates full database backups every week, differential backups every 12-24 hours, and transaction log backups every 5-10 minutes. With PITR, you can choose any point within your retention period (up to 35 days by default) and restore your data to that exact moment.
The restored database is created as a new copy—so you don’t overwrite the existing data unless you choose to.
Use Case Example
Imagine your nonprofit is using an Azure SQL Database to track volunteer hours. One day, someone accidentally runs a script that deletes an entire table. With PITR, you can restore the database to just before the incident—recovering your data without losing more than a few minutes’ worth of work.
Steps to Perform a Point-in-Time Restore
- Go to the Azure portal and type in SQL Database into the Azure search bar.
- Navigate to your SQL Database.
- Click Restore from the toolbar.
- Select Point-in-time.
- Choose the desired restore point time.
- Provide a new name for the restored database. Configure other desired settings, review + create.
- Select Create.
That’s it—Azure takes care of the heavy lifting.
Tips for Nonprofits
- Review retention settings: Ensure your database's PITR retention period aligns with your backup and compliance policies.
- Test your restores: Regularly verify that you can perform a PITR to reduce surprises during real emergencies.
- Educate your team: Train staff on best practices for data entry and deletion to reduce the risk of needing restores.
Data loss doesn’t have to be catastrophic. Azure’s Point-in-Time Restore is a powerful, low-effort way for nonprofits to stay resilient and mission-focused. It enables you to recover swiftly from setbacks and continue serving your community without unnecessary delays.
Happy Restoring!
