Preventing Data Loss and Recovering from Data Loss are top priorities for any organization that deals with data.
Data Backups have come in line with data protection over the past years. One of the key aspects of data backup is the method used to backup data. There are multiple backup methods available. Choosing the right backup method based on the backup frequency requirement of your business is important for faster recovery, best storage utilization, and more.
In this blog, we will discuss the different types of backup methods – Full, Incremental, Differential, Synthetic Full, Forever Incremental, & Reverse Incremental along with each of their advantages and disadvantages based on which you can choose the right backup method for your business.
Full Backup
The most common type of backup operation is a full backup. A full backup makes a copy of all data including files, folders, applications, and stores it in backup storage.
The major advantage of full backup is it takes no time to merge the multiple incremental recovery points, as a complete copy of the entire data is available as a single recovery point in backup storage. However, the disadvantage is that it takes a longer time to perform backup and consumes more storage space.
Considering the benefits and drawbacks, full backups are mostly done on a periodic basis. Most businesses run a full backup initially and follow it with incremental or differential backup. Then, full backup is scheduled on a weekly/monthly basis.
Incremental Backup
Incremental backup is the type of backup that copies only data that has changed since the previous backup.
Compared to a full backup, Incremental backup takes less time to backup and also consumes less storage space as it backs up and stores only the changes made since the previous backup. However, it takes additional time to restore entire data as the full backup has to be restored first and then successive incremental backup has to be restored in order.
Businesses with a large amount of data prefer incremental backup compared to full backup as it takes up less storage space and less time to backup.
Differential Backup
Differential backup creates a copy of data changed since the last full backup.
Differential Backup is usually scheduled as an intermediary backup between full backup and incremental backup. Differential backups restore data faster than incremental backup (but slower than full backup) as it requires only two data backup sets – a full backup set and the latest differential backup set. The storage space required for differential backup is less when compared to full backup but more compared to incremental backup.
Incremental backup saves changed data since the previous backup alone whereas differential backup copies all the data changed since the latest full backup.
Synthetic Full Backup
Synthetic Full Backup is a type of full backup. Here the full backup is not created using the source data. Instead, at a certain point, the latest full backup and the incremental associated with it are merged together to make it a new full backup which will now be the latest full backup, and all the incremental/differential backups will start based on this latest point.
A Synthetic Full Backup has all the advantages of a normal full backup as the time taken during backup and the bandwidth utilization are reduced. Synthetic Full backup results in a faster backup and restoration process and it requires less storage space compared to regular backup.
Forever Incremental Backup
As the name suggests, Forever incremental backup means it’s always incremental backups after the first full backup.
In a regular backup method, there would be a periodic full backup. But, in forever incremental backup, only one initial backup, and all other backup schedules will only track changes and backups only the modified data since the previous backup forever.
The advantage of forever incremental backup is the same as synthetic full backup: Faster backup and occupies less space, which helps in using the storage efficiently.
Reverse Incremental Backup
Reverse incremental backup also starts with a full backup and afterwards it is followed by the incremental backup. All the successive incremental backups are reversely injected into a full backup (synthetic full backup) to create the latest version of the dataset.
Reverse incremental backups create a backup chain that consists of the latest full backup files and a set of reverse incremental backup files preceding it.
Recovery speed for reverse incremental backup is faster as the latest version of the data is available in the recent full backup. It is easier to recover data from the latest recovery point even if one of the incremental backups is corrupted or lost.
Which backup method is best?
There is no good or worse backup method. Businesses can choose one or more backup methods that are suitable for their needs based on storage space consumption, target storage medium, network bandwidth, etc.
The most common practice that businesses follow is: Initial Full backup followed by Incremental/Differential backup. Then, they choose to run additional full or synthetic full on a periodic basis.
How BDRSuite can help?
BDRSuite – is a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery software for Data Center/Private Cloud (VMware, Hyper-V, Windows, Linux, Applications & Databases), Public Cloud (AWS), SaaS (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace), and Endpoints (Windows, Mac).
BDRSuite supports various backup methods such as Full, Incremental, Differential, Additional Full, Synthetic Full, Virtual Full Backup, and more. Based on your requirement, you can choose a specific backup method or even opt for multiple combinations of the backup method for more efficiency and run the backups at different backup frequencies.
One key differentiator of BDRSuite when compared to other backup software in the market is Virtual Full Backup.
BDRSuite’s Virtual Full Backup:
If you choose to run incremental backups, then BDRsuite automatically exposes every incremental backup as a virtual full backup through its own file system – VembuHIVE. It means that restoration of a backup will not require a merging of all the changes to a previous full backup. Backup and Restore will now happen faster than ever with incremental schedules and restoring from virtual full backup.
BDRSuite also offers other built-in features like Encryption, Compression, and Deduplication for enhanced security and efficient storage management.
Interested in exploring BDRSuite? Request a demo or Download a 30-day free trial here.
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