Disaster recovery vs backup: What's the difference?
With the rise of Cybersecurity risks, safeguarding your business data has become an unavoidable necessity. A major part of protecting your data involves developing a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan, which comprises regular backups of data. While Backup and Disaster Recovery may appear similar, they are fundamentally different in their implementation, purpose, and scope.
What is Backup?
Backup is a process of creating a copy of your data in a separate, secure location to prevent data loss that can occur from cyber attacks, human error, or natural disasters. Backup is a preventive measure that allows businesses to restore their data to the last backup point in the event of a loss.
What is Disaster Recovery?
Disaster recovery is a comprehensive strategy that allows businesses to continue operating even after a catastrophic event occurs. It includes protocols, processes, and tools to ensure business continuity in case of natural disasters, cyber attacks, or other disruptive events. The ultimate goal of Disaster Recovery is to minimize downtime and maintain business continuity.
Backup vs Disaster Recovery - A Detailed Comparison
While Backup and Disaster Recovery appear to be similar, they differ in several significant ways.
Purpose
The primary purpose of Backup is to create a copy of data for safe storage, while Disaster Recovery is focused on the continuity of business operations. Backup helps businesses recover lost data while Disaster Recovery enables businesses to restore operability during a crisis.
Timeframe
Backup is an ongoing process that requires daily, weekly, or monthly updates to the data stored. The backup process is typically automated and can be done regularly without human intervention. Disaster Recovery Plan, on the other hand, is a more extensive plan to restore business operations. Implementing Disaster Recovery takes time, planning, and personnel, as it requires a comprehensive strategy and resources.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum time duration in which the data loss is acceptable to a business during a disaster or service interruption. Backup usually has an RPO of 24 hours, meaning it can recover up to the last day's data. Disaster Recovery, on the other hand, has an RPO of seconds or minutes, enabling speedy recovery of operations.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the acceptable downtime period during a service interruption. Backup typically has a more extended RTO span as it requires the development of a new backup tape, retrieval of data from the secure location, and restoration on the original hardware. A Disaster Recovery plan has shorter RTO times as it aims to restore services at the earliest possible time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Backup and Disaster Recovery are two critical processes for businesses to maintain their Cybersecurity system. Backup focuses on data recovery while Disaster Recovery aims at achieving business operability continuity. Backup provides data preservation, while Disaster Recovery provides a comprehensive strategy to deal with disruptive events. Both processes are crucial to Cybersecurity, and businesses need to implement them as part of their broader risk management strategy.
References
- Vasu Subbiah. (2021, November 17). Backup vs Disaster Recovery: A Competitive Comparison. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3lLP0e7
- Luke Irwin. (2021, November 19). The differences between backup and disaster recovery. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/30FMsyN
- Fusion Computing. (2021, November 19). Disaster Recovery vs. Backup: What's the Difference? Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3HSIexY