Skip to main content

💾 Backup Methods

- Onsite
- Offsite
- Cloud

Onsite​

  • Complete and stored at the same site as the primary data source
  • Backup media will include magnetic tape, external hard drives, servers, NAS

Advantages​

  • Immediate access to data
  • One time cost
  • Internet access not needed

Disadvantages​

  • Fire/theft - This option cannot help
  • Hardware failure will loose all data

Offsite​

This is a copy of the businesses production system. Data that is stored in a geographically different location than the production system.

Advantages​

  • Protection against disaster at business premisies
  • Protection against primary site cyberattcks

Disadvantages​

  • Slow recovery time
  • Cost / management

Cloud backups​

Data is backed up in the cloud. It uses virtualisation

Advantages​

  • Cost effective, no site management
  • Easy to scale

Disadvantages​

  • Slow recovery time
  • Internet conenction dependent

3-2-1​

Always have 3 copies of you data (your production data and two backup copies)
Have the backups on two different media (disk and tape)
With one copy offsite, for disaster recovery

Methodologies​

Full​

Makes a copy of all data to another set of media.

Advantages​

  • All data is backed up
  • Straightforward to restore

Disadvantages​

  • Time consuming
  • Storage space

Incremental​

Only copies data that has changed since the last backup of any time

Advantages​

  • Less sorage required than differential backup
  • Quicker to backup

Disadvantages​

  • More time to restore as all previous backups have to be restored

Differential​

Only copies data that has changed since the last full backup.

Advantages​

  • Less storage required than full backup
  • Quicker to restore than full backup

Disadvantages​

  • Stores more data than an incremental backup
  • More space required than incrememntal backup

Contents

Improve this page