You’ve worked hard to create your business and to keep that business safe: You need to back up files and have a disaster recovery plan in place. Remember, just backing files up is not enough to protect your business from catastrophe; a disaster recovery plan is also important. Many IT companies, like us, provide both services to keep your business safe. Let’s take a look at backups vs disaster recovery and their key differences.

Understanding Backups

The first part of understanding the backup vs disaster recovery difference is to explore what backups are and how they can support your business. A backup is a physical or virtual copy of your organization’s data stored on a separate device. This copy allows you to restore data in the event it is lost, deleted or corrupted. Consistent, robust backups can help your business recover from data loss after data theft, technical issues or natural disasters. 

There are several key steps to the process of backing up your data:

• Identifying sensitive data 
• Choosing the right backup type and frequency 
• Ensuring you remain compliant
• Training staff on backup procedures and policies

Types of Backups

When discussing backup vs disaster recovery it is important to understand the types of backups your company could use. Choosing one of the three types of backups depends on how much and what data you are backing up. 

A full backup involves copying over an entire data set. This gives you a complete copy but requires higher network bandwidth and ample storage space. 

A differential backup only saves the files that have changed since the last full backup. Whether that is the addition of new documents created or changes within a file, this style is more efficient in terms of storage and allows for quicker restoration but still requires more resources than an incremental backup. 

The last type is incremental backup. This type only captures the changes made since the last incremental backup. Incremental backups take up the least amount of space and network bandwidth. However, you’ll need many incremental backups for one full backup, which can make the restoration process tricky. 

Your organization shouldn’t rely on just one type of backup but instead incorporate a mix of them, whether you are conducting a full backup quarterly, a monthly differential or a weekly incremental. Do what works best for your organization’s network and storage capacity.

Understanding Disaster Recovery

Next on our journey of discovering the backup vs disaster recovery difference is understanding disaster recovery (DR) plans. A DR plan is a set of policies and procedures to help your organization quickly regain use of your IT systems after a disaster. A disaster can be anything from a natural disaster to a cyberattack to fire sprinklers accidentally destroying your servers. The key difference between backups vs disaster recovery is that backups create restorable save points and DR is a comprehensive strategy for ensuring business continuity. Typically disaster recovery plans include backing up your data.

Key Metrics in Disaster Recovery Plans

When setting up your DR plan there are two metrics you’ll need to consider: recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). 

RTO is the maximum amount of time your system can be offline before it’s required to be online. Your company could set one at 15 minutes and once those 15 minutes are up, your IT system must be operational. 

Your RPO determines the maximum tolerable loss of data. Your organization’s RPO could be five hours, meaning that any data created 4 hours and 59 minutes before a disaster will be lost. It also means your organization will have to back data up every five hours.

Implementing a Disaster Recovery Plan

In the backup vs disaster recovery plan debate, it is important to understand what is needed in a DR plan. Your organization’s disaster recovery plan will need:

• A policy statement.
• Recovery goals.
• A step-by-step guide to response actions. (There should be one for each type of disaster.)
• A list of recovery team members and their contact information.
• Network diagrams. 
• Asset mapping.
• Risk evaluations. 

Your company should also complete regular testing and updates. You want to know for a fact your plan works before a disaster strikes, not while it’s occurring. When testing or if your organization experiences a disaster, make sure to update the plan so it remains effective and adaptable to your organization’s changes.

Understanding Backup vs Disaster Recovery Is Vital

Data loss and disasters can be expensive and stressful, so having both a backup strategy and a disaster recovery plan is important. The creation of DR and backup plans can be a monumental task, regardless of the size of your business. Here at Internos, we have experts in the fields of backup and disaster recovery who are ready to protect your organization. Get started with us by booking a call today.