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Types of business backups

Types of business backups

Did you know that there are several types of business backups? Nowadays, making backups can be a matter of life or death for many organizations, since there are data, documents and files that need frequent control.

Losing important information such as inventories, databases or accounting can mean a significant stoppage in the company's activity that it cannot afford. For this reason, it is of vital importance to know and choose well between the different types of backup.

What types of business backups are there?:

Backup types differ fundamentally in the way they copy data, the speed at which they do it and the space requirements. The main ones include the following.

 

1. Full

A full backup makes a copy of all selected files. When subsequent copies are run, another backup of those files is made again.

Restoring a full backup is quite fast, although each run is slower and takes up more space than other types. It is also known as full copy.

2. Incremental

An incremental backup makes a full copy of the data and then stores only the information modified since the last copy.

Its main benefits are that it does not take much time to perform and does not take up much space; however, the information recovery process is more costly.

3. Differential

A differential backup makes a copy of all changes made since the last full backup.

It is much faster and requires less storage space than a full backup, but more than an incremental backup.

Restores are slower than with a full backup, but faster than an incremental.

4. Mirror

A mirror backup is very similar to a full backup, but it has a big difference...

As it is a faithful reflection of the source, a file deleted at source will also be deleted in the backup. Therefore, it should be used with great caution.

5. Synthetic

A synthetic backup reconstructs the image of a full backup using all incremental or differential copies.

It can be stored on tapes at offsite locations, with the advantage of reducing restoration time.

6. Reverse

Another type of backup is the reverse backup. This backup is an incremental backup of changes made between two instances of a mirror copy. 

After the initial full copy, each subsequent copy applies the changes to the previous full copy, creating a new synthetic copy each time, while being able to revert to the previous versions.

7. Continuous data protection

A backup or continuous data protection copy allows a greater number of restore points compared to the other types above.

Difference between differential and incremental copy:

 

The main difference between these two types of backup is in the amount of data to be backed up.

If two differential backups are made in a short period of time without having made any modifications, the same data is obtained in both backups, since it is based on the last full backup.

In addition, if two incremental backups are made in the same period and under the same conditions, there will be no visible information in the second backup.

Thus, differential backups ensure that you only need the last full backup and the last one of this kind to get the information you want to restore, while in incremental backups you need to restore the last full backup and all the incremental backups made to get the most recent data.

 

How to choose between backup types:

 

Choosing one of the backup types depends on the type of company. Thus, if it is an SME, full backups are very useful since they do not require much time and space to make them and all the information is always safe.

If it is a company that makes copies every day, a weekly full copy combined with a full copy every day can be a great choice because it does not require much time or space, and the information will be safe. However, the problem is that some updates may be lost and that recovering them is slower because you have to go to different copies.

In some cases it is advisable to make a full copy weekly and a daily differential copy daily, since the data will be protected and restoring them will be fast. However, the storage cost will be somewhat higher.

Be that as it may, what is clear is that having any of these types of backups for companies will always be better than having none at all. So, if you need advice in this regard do not hesitate to consult with Intelequia to guide you to what suits you best.

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