Data Backup vs Disaster Recovery (+Terms You Need to Know)
Keeping your business data safe is crucial. A brief downtime can result in revenue loss and bad customer experience.
But having a data backup isn't enough considering the possibilities of power outages and other disasters.
Disaster recovery comes in when you lose data during network and hardware failure. Data backup and disaster recovery both safe keeps your data but differ on the level of recovery.
Want to minimise the severity of unplanned downtime on your business? Learn more about data backup and disaster recovery and how they impact your business.
Understand the Difference Between Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
| Data Backup | Data Recovery |
| Data backup is the process of duplicating data and transferring them to another device.
In case you encounter a database corruption, an accidental deletion, or an error in the software upgrade, you can restore backup data. |
Disaster recovery allows you to access applications, data, and IT resources after a power outage.
One routine you can do is diverting the system to a secondary set of servers and storage systems until the main data centre is functional again. |
RECOMMENDED: Learn the Best Way to Backup Your Important Data
Data Backup and Disaster Recovery may sound the same. But when you experience an outage, keeping many copies of data isn’t enough to keep your business running. You need a robust recovery plan to ensure business continuity. One strategic way to do that is by investing in the best cloud computing tools and resources.
Learn Fundamental Terms to Plan a Successful Disaster Recovery Solution
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is an approach to disaster recovery hosted and managed by a third-party provider. There are DRaaS offerings that allow you to personally manage disaster recovery processes or let a team of experts manage it for you.
Failback is a type of disaster recovery process of switching back to the original system as soon as the main data centre is up and running again.
Failover is a type of disaster recovery process of automatically offloading tasks to backup systems. In short, another system is ready to take over if your main data centre fails.
Recovery point objective (RPO) pertains to the amount of data you can afford to lose in case disaster hits. You might need to duplicate data to a remote server continuously so that an outage will not yield any data loss.
Recovery time objective (RTO) refers to the amount of time it takes to recover to normal business operations after a power outage. As you set your RTO, you have to consider how much time you’re willing to lose.
Restore is the process of moving backup data to your main system. This process is generally considered part of backup rather than disaster recovery.
READ: Preparing Your Small Business for the Cloud
Don’t let disasters damage your business
It’s critical for every business, big or small, to invest in high-grade data backup and disaster recovery resources. Doing so will protect your business assets and keep your revenue and reputation intact.
Don’t wait for problems to happen before taking any further action. Find the best partner for your cloud computing needs today.
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