Backup and recovery solutions are essential tools for keeping data safe. They allow you to restore files and folders quickly and easily in case something goes wrong and understanding the key functions and differences between backup and recovery can be key to correctly safeguarding your critical data.
A backup must contain all the file types required to restore your computer if something happens to it. Your backup should include everything from operating systems to applications such as Microsoft Office 365, Adobe Creative Suite and even email accounts. If you store your data online, cloud storage options like Azure, Google or Amazon Web Services can make it easier to share and update your files.
Backing up your data regularly and consistently and retaining multiple copies of your data is a best practice everyone should follow. Losing access to critical information because you didn’t take the necessary steps to protect it is a nightmare that no one wants to experience.
What is data backup and recovery?
Backup refers to creating copies of important documents and data that are stored on your computer. This process includes backing up your database, videos and other media.
Recovery is the process of recovering deleted or damaged data from backups. If you accidentally delete something or get corrupted, you can restore it from your backup.
Backup vs. recovery
The difference between backup and recovery is significant. If you are looking for a reliable solution for backing up your files, it is often easier and more scalable to use a cloud storage provider. These providers offer both backup and recovery solutions. You can easily upload your files to these platforms and access them anytime, anywhere. But what about recovering your files in case of corruption or accidental deletion?
Types of data backup
Full backups
Full backups take a long time and require lots of storage.
Simple backups
A simple backup is a procedure that saves the current state of a file or files. Simple recovery is a procedure that recovers information about changes made to the previous version of a file or set of files.
Incremental backups
Incremental backups are quick and need little storage space. They’re great for backing up data that hasn’t changed recently. But there’s no way to know how much space you’ll need for future backups.
Differential backups
Differential backups are incremental backups but store information about changes to a database or server. These types of backups make it easy to restore a complete copy of a database or server from just one file. And differentials are suitable for restoring databases and servers quickly without rebuilding everything.
Differential backups are helpful because they let you restore a database or server quickly. You don’t have to build a whole new version of it. Instead, you restore a differential backup, apply the latest code changes and get yourself a working copy of the database or server.
Instant mass restore
This is a process that allows IT staff to recover not only files but hundreds of VMs instantly, at scale, saving time and resources.
Automated VM backup
An automated VM backup is used with the help of automatic backups, so that you can easily back up your virtual machines in a matter of minutes without any manual intervention.
VM Snapshots
VM snapshots are snapshots are one of the most powerful features of VMware vSphere that allows administrators to create point-in-time copies of their virtual machine’s state for easy recovery or migration purposes.
Volume recovery
Volume recovery is used by process teams for recovering an unlimited number of VMS simultaneously, saving time and resources.
Virtual machine disk recovery
This is a recovery process that ensures all data and apps on VM are recovered quickly.
Bare machine recovery
Bare machine recovery allows you to recover all files and folders without reinstalling or reconfiguring anything.
Instant volume mounts
Instant volume mounts are a method where multiple volumes are mounted into a single file system, allowing them to be restored together.
Instant VM recovery
Instant VM recovery allows you to recover a virtual machine in seconds.
Instant snapshot recovery
Instant snapshot recovery is used by many organizations as a quick way to create backups. However, they do take up space on your hard drive, which makes it challenging to keep a lot of snapshots. The instant snapshot recovery process allows you to recover these snapshots within seconds.
File recovery software
This software is used if you accidentally delete a file and you wish to retrieve that file back again. In such cases, you must look for reliable file recovery software.
Backup and recovery may seem like simple terms on their own but gaining a better understanding of how they both contribute to preserving your critical data — and overall business continuity — can make the difference between experiencing data loss and being prepared for any disaster.
Related blog posts: