Backup (Data Backup)
A backup is a copy of files or databases to a secondary location for safety reasons in case of hardware failure, cyberattacks, user errors etc. The backup can be used for recovery in case the original data is lost or corrupted or if it got deleted for any reason. Data is crucial to the survival of any company, that’s why they must protect it.
The most popular types of backup solutions and tools available on the market are:
Hardware Appliances: They often include storage, which comes as a rack-mounted device that is installed and connected to the network. Usually, they are easily installable, and the agents installed on the system perform the backups. However, if the hardware fails, the entire data backup solution is lost.
Software Solutions: They need to be installed on your system to handle the backup process. While many software solutions can use existing systems, some of them require dedicated servers provisioned just for backup. These solutions are more flexible than hardware appliances, e.g. when your infrastructure changes often, and often less expensive, too.
Cloud Services: Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) is a cloud-based offering where you install lightweight agents on your machine to run your backup from the vendor’s or service provider’s cloud infrastructure. This is a very simple solution as there are no systems to deploy or operating systems to configure. However, if you deal with sensitive data you need to check if BaaS is an acceptable solution.
Hybrid Data Backup Solutions: These are all-in-one solutions are a combination of a software and a cloud service, leaving the decision which version to use up to you.
Types of data backups:
Full backups: Everything you want to protect will be copied. The first backup of a system will obviously be a full one, but as they are very time consuming there are other types for the following backups.
Differential backups: This type only includes the files that have changes since the last full backup. If you do a full backup on Friday, the differential backup on Saturday only includes the data that has changes since Friday, on Sunday you also back up the data that has changed since Friday and so on, until the next full backup. They are much quicker than full backups as much less data is copied, but the further the last full backup is away the more data to back up it gets and the longer it takes each time.
Incremental backups: These backups also only copy the data that has changed since the last backup – full or incremental. If you do an incremental backup on Monday, only the data that has changes since the last incremental backup on Sunday will be copied. As a result, you have much smaller and faster backups, so you can do them more frequently, e.g. every hour if necessary and reasonable. Backup StorageThe copy of your data will be stored in backup storage. There are different types of storage, the most common one is NAS.
Other options are:
Local or USB Disks: They are fast and convenient, and no network is needed. However, if they are stored in the same location as the original data, they can be destroyed with them, if there is a fire or flood for example.
Tapes: To protect your backups from physical events that could destroy your primary data, you can store the copies of your data on tape devices and physically ship them to another location, which is at least 100 miles away. You have to keep in mind that if you need to recover your data, it takes a lot of time as you have to physically ship your tapes back to your primary location where you need them.
Cloud Storage: This type is the modern alternative to tapes. Usually, cloud storage is based on a subscription model where you subscribe to a certain storage capacity in the cloud vendor’s data center. Then, all you need is an internet connection to send the backups to the cloud
