It is crucial to protect corporate data and, in the event of its loss, to have the capability to restore it from a backup. By maintaining a remote backup, you can avoid the destruction of both your original data and backups in the event of a disaster, such as theft, fire, flood or a digital threat in the form of a cyber-attack.
Both backup and disaster recovery are essential for business continuity. Ensure that neither of these areas is overlooked. It can take a significant amount of time, up to several days, to recover lost data. In the best-case scenario, the work of employees will be put on hold. In the worst situation, there is a risk of losing customers. Considering the amount of time and money you could lose, the investment in backup and disaster recovery is fully justified.
This article will provide an overview of backup and disaster recovery, including an analysis of the types and importance of these two concepts.
What is a backup?
A backup and replication service is the process of creating copies of personal or corporate data on additional local storage media or in the cloud. It is essential to create a protected data archive and to have the capability to restore it in the event of damage or changes.
There are three main types of backup:
A full backup creates a complete copy of all data stored on the device or in a separate memory space. Subsequent copies are also created in full.
An incremental backup creates a copy of the original full backup, which contains only the files that have been modified. In an incremental backup, files are not replaced, but rather supplemented.
A differential backup creates a copy of the data that has been modified since the previous backup.
What is the right choice – cloud or on-site backup? A widely adopted 3-2-1 concept involves creating three copies simultaneously: two on isolated physical media and one in the cloud. Physical media can include computer and server hard drives, portable hard drives, USB drives, and other devices. Cloud storage is available at any time, can be easily scaled up or down according to requirements, and provides reliable data protection.
In terms of frequency, a fundamental principle is that the cost of a backup should not exceed the potential damage from data loss.
For a small business with few customers, it may be sufficient to create one backup per month. However, for larger companies with many customers, it is recommended to implement a system with different backup intervals, ranging from once every 15 minutes to monthly or yearly.
If the data is critical, it makes sense to create backups daily. Otherwise, if a server fail, the organization will be unable to function. This also applies to financial and accounting records. The loss of such data could result in significant disruption and potential regulatory penalties. Therefore, it is advisable to back up documents on a daily basis.
What is disaster recovery?
Disaster recovery is a set of practices designed to restore access to data in case of failures caused by natural disasters, technical breakdowns or software errors.
The tool is designed to promptly respond to and eliminate critical failures in a company's IT infrastructure. By using DR, even a serious failure will not interrupt business processes for a long time.
How does disaster recovery work? The most common method of implementing such a solution is through the use of a redundant cloud infrastructure. Cloud4U provides its customers with cloud capacity to host a backup system. The servers that comprise the main and redundant infrastructure are located in different data centers, with a communication channel between them to facilitate operational synchronization.
The main goal of disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is to minimize downtime. Rather than awaiting repair of the primary infrastructure, systems are promptly switched to the redundant one, ensuring uninterrupted business process continuity.
Why it matters? The specific nature of many companies' services requires the continuity of business processes. Downtime can result in significant financial and reputational losses. DR provides a solution to avoid such risks. If you work with sensitive information, a failure can lead to the loss of that data, resulting in huge losses and legal liability.
All failures cannot be eliminated. However, a well-structured disaster recovery plan can help minimize the impact of such incidents. Even for the most unlikely of threats, developing algorithms to counteract and protect against them is an effective solution.
Differences between disaster recovery and backup
Backup and disaster recovery are key elements of any data management and protection strategy. But each has its own purpose and approach.
Backup is the process of creating copies of data in order to protect against loss due to accidental deletion, failure, corruption, or other issues. The objective is to create a redundant copy that can be restored. Backups based on Veeam are typically conducted on a regular schedule (e.g., daily or weekly) and stored separately from the primary source.
Disaster recovery includes procedures for the restoration of data, systems and infrastructure to normal operation in the event of a catastrophic failover or system failure.
The objective is to reduce the amount of time the business is unable to function. A typical DR plan will include strategies for data replication, failover and recovery, with the aim of ensuring business continuity.
Disaster recovery frequently incorporates redundant infrastructure, failover systems and geographically dispersed data centers, thus ensuring resilience and availability.
In summary, although backup and disaster recovery serve different purposes, they are both essential elements of a robust data protection strategy. Together, they ensure business availability, integrity and continuity in the face of multiple threats and challenges.
