Backups are an essential need for every organization. It can save your business in times of emergency and get your business back on track to keep it up and running. There are many options for a data backup. It mainly depends on the users to choose the type of backup to be configured based on the amount of data available in an organizational environment.
Here, most of us know that we need regular backups. But do we know how our data is being backed up? This blog will explain about the types of backup that are being used in the day to day process. Typically there are three types of backup which will be discussed in detail below.
Full backup
As the name implies “Full backup” is a complete copy of the backup data with the recently made changes together. Full backup gives you a single full version of your backup data and they are periodically backed up based on the organization’s demand. Full backups are mostly configured weekly or monthly at regular intervals. If the user is in need of the complete data with the recent changes, it can be retrieved using the Full backup by choosing the appropriate version of the full backup file.
For example, If the first full backup is on Monday and the next full backup is scheduled for next week’s Tuesday, then all the changes that occur between Monday to Next Tuesday will be captured in the next full backup.
Let us now have a look at the pros and cons of full backup.
Full backup ensures faster and easier recovery as the entire data is readily available at once. Furthermore, it is easy to access and maintain the different versions of the full backup. While the topic of storage comes into play, full backup consumes more storage space as every time a full backup is configured, the backup process will start from the beginning up to the recent changes done to the data. Backup and restoration of the full backup is relatively time-consuming depending upon the size of backup data and uses most of the bandwidth.
Incremental backup
Incremental backup will track and backup only the changes or added files since the last completed backup, which can either be a full backup or an incremental backup. In many organizations the Default backup strategy is as follows :
- The First backup will run as full backup
- Subsequent backups will be incremental backups
Once the full backup is done, why are successive backups treated as Incremental backups? Is there any specific reason for the organizations to follow this strategy? The answer is YES.
Incremental Backups are in general much more faster when compared to the other two backup methods since only the changes will be backed up. This saves a lot of time and productivity for organizations. Also, Incremental backups are most commonly configured on hourly, daily or weekly depending on the need.
For Example, If the Full Backup is performed on Monday and Wednesday with an incremental, Wednesday’s incremental backup would cover the changes that took place between Monday and Wednesday. Now if the second incremental backup occurs on Thursday, then the changes from Wednesday to Thursday will be backed up with Thursday’s incremental. Now I think you can understand the Mechanism that is being used here.
Another reason why major organizations make use of this mechanism is that, the incremental backup consumes less storage space than any other backup strategy. They ensure that your backup data is up to date as backups are frequently configured. The biggest drawback with this type of backup is that it fails while dealing with recovery. It takes more time to merge all the incrementals and full backup files so as to achieve the complete backup data.
Differential Backup
A Differential backup captures all the changes that have occurred since the last full backup. If you run a Full backup on Monday and the differential backup is scheduled on Friday, then differential backup will backup all the changed files from Monday to Friday. On the whole, differential backup are cumulative of all the incremental backups.
For Example, If you run a full backup on Thursday and a differential backup on Monday, the differential backup would cover all files changed between Thursday and Monday. If the differential backup occurs on Wednesday then it would cover all files changed since Thursday’s full backup.
Pros and Cons:
Restores are quick when compared to incremental backups, the full backup and the last differential backups are enough to restore the entire backup data. The main problem with this backup method is that it leads to a lot of duplication files and consumes more storage space than the remaining two backup methods.
Select the right backup method
It is a good practice to backup your data on daily basis and if you are working on a critical project then backup must be done frequently. Analyse your backup data depending on the demand and size to choose a suitable backup strategy that offers you the best backup and recovery solution.
Vembu invariably knows the types of backup needed for the customers with respect to their resources and availability. Vembu specializes in providing different backup strategies for both File Level Backup and Image based backups. File level backup allows you to recover the entire backup file using the initial full backup and last incremental, this helps in easy recovery of the whole processed data. Vembu uses incremental backups for Image based backups, which restores only the selected data that has to be recovered. This can help us in the easy restoration of the virtual machines to any virtual environment.
Experience modern data protection with this latest Vembu BDR Suite v.3.8.0 FREE edition. Try the 30 days free trial here: https://www.bdrsuite.com/vembu-bdr-suite-download/
Follow our Twitter and Facebook feeds for new releases, updates, insightful posts and more.
