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What is the best way to make a secure backup of the data?
The backup of the data is of crucial importance for any organization. If we are not able to keep all the data safe and cannot recover them in the shortest possible time, if necessary, we can have serious problems. Therefore, it is vital to choose the best backup strategy, and we tell you which one is in this article.
There are many backup strategies based on off-site physical support, and the oldest is to make the copies on physical media-on tape, for more data-and physically transport those copies to another site separate from the original. This method is somewhat outdated, but even today it is still used. There are variants, but all the methods related to the physical transport of the data have a great disadvantage: the recovery time – RTO, or Recovery Time Objective-.
If we talk about disk backup, we are facing a similar situation, although faster both to make the copies and to restore the data. Here we will focus especially on the backup in the Cloud, which is a faster, more scalable, flexible and secure solution. Regardless of this, there are several types of backup that we will comment briefly.
Most frequent types of backup
The three basic types of backup, the best known, are the complete, the incremental and the differential. All have their advantages and disadvantages, and each organization must decide which type best suits their own needs. In addition, there are a couple of variants on the basic types that are worth discussing.
Full backup
As the name suggests, a complete backup backs up all of our data. Without much more complication, it has the proviso that it consumes a lot of time and resources each time a copy is made. This means that many companies make their backups periodically, and between each copy, there is an appreciable risk of data loss in the event of a disaster.
Incremental backup
Incremental backup is intended to save time and storage space. An incremental backup is one in which the data that has changed since the last copy is backed up. With this strategy, the first time a full backup of the data will be made, and the following will only make copies of the new data and existing data that have been modified.
A complete restoration of the data implies that all increments must be restored. If any of the created copies failed or corrupted, including the first one, the restoration would be incomplete. There are different variants of the incremental backup that aim to improve the features: incremental multilevel, incremental inverse, incremental at the block level or byte level …
One of the most interesting variants is the so-called incremental-forever backup. An initial full backup is made, and from there only incremental copies are made, which are stored on a server. This server tracks all increments and sends the correct data to the client during restores. In the Cloud it is something simple to implement: the data is divided into parts and placed in a Cloud storage system. The metadata about the fragments is stored in a persistent system, which allows the system to assemble a point-in-time backup of these fragments at the time of restoration.
This is the solution that maintains a better compromise between the resources needed in the backup server and data recovery time.
Differential backup
A differential backup is similar to the incremental concept that we have just seen, but it has a particularity that makes it different, and more advantageous. The difference with respect to the incremental backup is that in the first, copies of the data that changed from the last backup are made; in the differential backup, the data that changed from the previous full backup is copied.
The implications are huge in terms of recovery time since you do not have to restore each increment. The disadvantage is that, over time, the storage space required will grow.
How do I guarantee a good backup of my business data?
Choosing a provider that has a solid backup strategy is a strategic decision. It is the best way to ensure that we have the backing of the data and that we can recover it from any disaster in the shortest possible time. We also provide customized backup solutions, efficient and secure to protect the data of companies that require it.
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Therefore, making a backup of physical and virtual equipment, files, databases or mobile phones is easier.
It is a task that can be programmed with comfort and with the periodicity that is desired. The copies will be stored in our Data Centers – and it is possible to choose the Data Center. Data restoration is simple and fast, we just need a few clicks to get it up and running.
With this solution, we can unify the tasks of backup and restoration of multiple platforms and environments from a single web interface. By installing its corresponding agent, it is possible to easily make backup copies of multiple file systems (FAT16 / 32, NTFS, HFS +, Linux swap, etc.), databases (SQL, MySQL, etc.) or platforms (Exchange, SharePoint, Android, iOS, etc.).
It is also possible to program in a simple way the policy of backup copies of each system, choosing the periodicity, the encryption or the exact moment of the execution of the copies. In this way, it is possible to ensure the safeguarding of the latest changes in the data without affecting performance.
