What is backup and restore?

Backup and restore refers to technologies and practices for making periodic copies of data and
applications to a separate, secondary device and then using those copies to recover the data and
applications—and the business operations on which they depend.

Backup and restore is used if the original data and applications are lost or damaged due to a power
outage, cyberattack, human error, disaster or some other unplanned event.

With digital transformation in full swing, the demand for increasingly scalable, capable and affordable
backup and recovery solutions is greater than ever. Backup and restore is an essential component of
any business’ disaster recovery strategy.

Strategy and planning

How you back up your data and applications (in other words, how frequently you back them up and to
what device or location) depends on the cost of losing access to the data and applications for any
period of time and the cost of replacing or re-creating the data if it’s lost for good.

Typically, the first step in creating a backup strategy—especially an enterprise backup strategy—is to
determine recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives for each data source and
application.

Recovery time objective, or RTO, refers to the maximum amount of time the business can
afford to be without access to the data or application—or, how quickly you need to recover the
data and application.
Recovery point objective, or RPO, refers to the amount of data you can afford to lose and
effectively dictates how frequently you need to back up your data to avoid losing more.

RTOs and RPOs vary depending on the business you’re in and the individual applications and data in
question. Mission-critical applications (for example, the ecommerce system for a major online retailer
or the trading application at a brokerage) might require microscopic RTOs and RPOs since, in each
case, downtime might cost millions per minute.

But the brokerage’s email system might require shorter RTOs and RPOs than the retailer’s email
system because the brokerage might require a comprehensive email audit trail for regulatory
compliance. Beyond RTO and RPO, other factors that determine your choice of backup and restore
technology include your need for scalability, data security and even physical distance (for example,
whether you need to maintain your backups far enough away from your production infrastructure to
ensure recovery from a local power outage or disaster).

Backup devices and services

What type of device or service will you use to back up your data? Generally speaking, you have four
choices.

Tape drive

Tape is the oldest backup medium in use today. It offers low-cost, high-capacity data storage, but
relatively slow read/write performance makes tape a poor choice for incremental backup, continuous
data protection (CDP) or any other backup method that updates backups whenever data changes
(see the ‘Common methods and solutions’ section below).

Tape is also more prone to physical wear and damage than other storage media so it needs to be
closely managed and constantly tested to ensure that it works when it’s time for recovery. For these
reasons, tape is a better choice for nightly or weekly backups or for cost-effectively archiving data that
your organization wants or needs to keep but doesn’t need in order to quickly bring the business back
online in the event of an outage or disaster.
Hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs)

Most data today is backed up to a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SDD), whether that drive
is a stand-alone external drive or part of a backup server (see below). Both offer faster read/write
performance than tape, making them a good choice for continually updated backups and short-
RTO/RPO backup scenarios.

SDDs are increasingly popular because they offer faster read/write times than HDDs, require less
physical space to store the same amount of data, and consume less power (even if they are more
expensive to purchase per gigabyte). If HDDs and SDDs have a drawback, it's that they aren’t
particularly scalable—if you need more backup capacity, you must purchase and install a new
physical disk.

Backup server

A backup server is a dedicated server built specifically for backing up files stored on multiple client
computers on the same network. The server is outfitted with significant disk storage and specialized
software for scheduling and managing backups.

Backup server disks are often configured for redundancy to protect backup data and ensure that
backups continue in the event of a disk failure. An onsite backup server can be a cost-effective
backup solution for a small office but does not protect backup data against local outages or physical
disasters.

Cloud backup

Cloud backup backs up your data and applications via a corporate network or internet connection to a
physical or (more likely) virtual backup server at a remote data center operated by your company, a
hosting provider or a cloud services provider.

Cloud backup is typically the most flexible type of backup. You can use it to back up files, application
data, or entire physical or virtual servers. You can schedule backups as frequently or infrequently as
you like. Because cloud backup servers are typically virtualized, you can scale easily and cost-
effectively as needed.

Cloud backup eliminates the need to physically move backup media to another location (and the
significantly larger RTOs and RPOs that can result) for protection against local power outages or
disasters.

What is network backup?

Network backup involves creating an exact copy of all the data that is saved on the network and the
various devices connected to it, such as servers, endpoints, or any network nodes. Such backups
offer protection from problems caused by faulty software, mechanical breakdowns, unintentional
removal, or destruction of information or loss of valuable data due to other causes. Although a
network backup will not directly support your ACL or network access control efforts, they will ensure
that your data remains secure and whole in the event of a disaster.

What is network configuration backup?

Network configuration backup is a snapshot of the configuration settings of a network’s infrastructure

components. These network components may include routers, firewalls, switches, or anything else
with network configuration settings. Businesses may look to network configuration backups to make a
copy of the configuration settings, since they could already have backups in place for other network
endpoints.

What is a network backup solution?

A network backup solution is software created for the purpose of copying device or endpoint data in
the network and storing those copies in a protected location. It enables organizations to back up their
network data using designated software to streamline the process.

How network backup works

The process of backing up a network has many important steps. A basic network backup process
involves the following:

1. Choosing what components to backup

2. Scheduling network backups and configuring backup settings
3. Capturing the network data and storing it on-premises or in the cloud
4. Monitoring the network backup process to certify whether backups are completed
5. Testing the network backups regularly to verify that they work and are effective
6. Restoring the network data after data damage occurs

When it comes to the actual execution of a network backup, the data can be captured using a few
different types of backup. Full backups are typically performed at the beginning and intermittently to
capture the entirety of the data. In between the full backups, scheduled incremental or differential
backups can be performed to make copies of any changes that occur since the last full backup.

The benefits of network backup

Network backup is an essential component of a data backup and recovery plan. The specific benefits
of implementing network backup within your organization include:

Protect against security threats

Security threats pose another serious risk to network data safety. With a network backup, a copy of
the network data is created, encrypted, and stored in another safe location. Making an additional copy
of the data from network components creates a safety net to fall back on if the original data is lost or
destroyed because of malware, ransomware, or other cybersecurity threats.

Recovery after a disaster

Network backup enables organizations to recover from the loss of data, hardware or software failures,
problems with configurations, and other issues that may occur on a network.

Reassurance of network data safety

When network backups are performed, network data is safe, protected, and can be recovered if
needed. The peace of mind that comes with that knowledge encourages productivity and puts
business members at ease.

Cost efficiency

Creating a network backup to replace lost data from network assets saves a business money by
preventing them from having to build and create the network data from square one. It is always less
expensive to restore, instead of recreate, data.

Important features of a network backup solution

It can be difficult to decide which network backup solution will be an ideal fit for your business. To
make this important decision, there are a few components you’ll want to consider such as:

Automation and scheduling tools

Encryption of the data
Features for version control
Reporting and monitoring options
Local vs cloud storage