Backups, Firmly Planted.
We are celebrating the World Backup Day!
Backup by definition is:
an extra copy of your data for a {device}
- Oxford Dictionary.
But... how the backup is restored is equally as important as the backup solution itself.
Types of Backups
Full
A Full backup is a copy of your entire data, item by item, folder by folder. In other words, a copy of every single file in your device is created when the backup runs every time.
This sounds like what a backup should be, however, full backups require a lot of storage space and are very time consuming to create.
Incremental
Incremental backups only back up items that have changed or have been edited since the last backup.
Allowing for faster backup speeds since it doesn’t have to copy all files every time the backup runs.
Differential
Differential backups are very similar to incremental, as it also relies on having a full backup of your device and subsequently back up content that have changed over time.
The main difference is that differential maintains copies of file that have changed from the initial full backup and not from the last.
What About Sync Services?
Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox
Benefits
Files are synchronized between two or more devices
Fast access to items
Multiple apps available: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and Web
Drawbacks
Is it a sync service but not necessarily a backup
Deleted items can only be restored within a timeframe, typically 30 days
Multiple versions of a file may not be available
Let's Learn From The Following Stories
Family & Wedding Photos
Susan kept her family and wedding photos in the Pictures folder in her Windows laptop. She never had issues with her previous computers and thought backups weren’t really necessary.
One day, she accidentally spilled coffee on her laptop, causing liquid damaged to the logic board and drive. A recovery solution was unable to recover her data.
Both macOS and Windows provide built-in solutions to backup data, like File History and Time Machine, Susan could have enabled and configured one of these solutions to protect her photos in case of damages like the one she experienced.
Company Files
Richard, a manager, kept company files stored in the company’s NAS (Network Attached Storage) server. Unfortunately, a major power outage struck the area and the NAS lost power while a routine data verification process.
This caused the NAS to be unable to recover files after the power came back on, causing data loss.
While NAS systems are a great solution for businesses that provide performance and redundancy of your data when several users need access to files, they are not a backup solution. If Joe had implemented an offsite backup, the company would have been able to restore files after the power outage occurred.
Client's Legal Documents
A law firm was approached by a client due to a lawsuit, they kept this client’s documents in a computer that had to be reinstalled due to an issue, but they had a sync service installed on it so they thought this data was being kept in the “cloud”.
They later discovered that this sync service ran out of space months ago and it stopped synchronizing data, and since the computer had to be erased, they lost their customer’s files.
While sync and cloud services are great for fast access to files from different devices, they are not designed as backup solutions. The organization could have avoided this by having a monitoring system in place or implemented both an offsite and onsite backup solution for all devices.
3 Reasons Why You Need a Backup
1
You cannot restore what you don’t have.
2
You may have legal and/or institutional requirements.
3
If you can’t leave without it, then you need a backup.
Recommended Backup Providers
These are cost-effective backups solutions some of our customers rely on.
Backblaze
Learn more about Backblaze here.
CrashPlan
Learn more about CrashPlan here.
QNAP
Learn more about QNAP here.
Synology
Learn more about Synology here.
Arq Backup
Learn more about Arq Backup here.