💾Backup

NEW

Creating redundant copies of data to prevent loss and enable recovery.

DESCRIPTION

Backups create additional copies of data to protect against loss from failures, corruption, ransomware, or accidental deletion. They underpin recovery point and time objectives (RPO/RTO) in resilience planning. Typical strategies include full, incremental, and differential backups. The 3-2-1 rule keeps multiple copies on different media, with one offsite or immutable. Modern backup platforms support encryption, deduplication, compression, and policy-based retention. Backups differ from replication and archiving in purpose and design. Regular recovery testing validates backup integrity and procedures.

ALTERNATIVE DEFINITIONS

Wikipedia

In information technology, a backup, or data backup, is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event.

Emphasizes the purpose of restoration after a data loss event.

Source

AWS

Backup is the process of copying data from a primary location to a secondary location to protect it from loss or corruption.

Highlights primary-to-secondary copy for protection from loss or corruption.

Source

RELATED TERMS

Restore Disaster Recovery Materialized View Recovery Point Objective Recovery Time Objective Incremental Backup Full Backup Entity Matching

COMPETING TERMS

Archiving Replication

RELATIONS

• Broader: Backup and Recovery
• Narrower: Full Backup Incremental Backup

KNOWLEDGE AREAS

Data Storage & Operations Data Security Infrastructure Data Management

TARGET AUDIENCE

Data Engineer Cloud Architect IT Manager Chief Information Security Officer Cybersecurity Engineer Security Architect Application Administrator

EXTERNAL SOURCES

• Wikipedia - Backup
• Microsoft Learn - Azure Backup service overview
• NIST - Contingency planning guidance including backup/restore

TOP QUESTIONS

What is a hot topic around Backup in 2026?

Immutable and air-gapped backups to counter ransomware are top priorities. Organizations also prioritize backup for SaaS apps and zero-trust recovery vaults.

Category: Topic

Why is Backup still relevant with cloud-native services?

Accidents, misconfigurations, and malicious deletions still occur. Cloud SLAs rarely cover your data; shared responsibility means you must protect it.

Category: Relevancy

How is Backup typically managed?

Organizations define RPO/RTO, select backup tiers and schedules, encrypt at rest/in transit, monitor jobs, and perform regular restore drills.

Category: Management

What is required to implement a robust Backup strategy?

Define business-critical workloads, classify data, choose storage tiers, implement 3-2-1, automate schedules, and test restores. Document runbooks and responsibilities.

Category: Requirements

What common mistakes occur with Backup?

Not testing restores, keeping backups online without immutability, poor retention, and unencrypted backups are frequent and costly mistakes.

Category: Mistakes

What are the risks of poor Backup practices?

Extended downtime, permanent data loss, compliance penalties, and higher ransom exposure can result from weak backups.

Category: Risks

What alternatives or complements to Backup exist?

Replication and high availability reduce downtime but do not replace backups. Archiving addresses long-term storage, not rapid recovery.

Category: Alternatives

How do RPO and RTO relate to Backup?

RPO defines acceptable data loss between backups; RTO defines acceptable downtime to restore. Both drive backup frequency and architecture.

Category: Concepts

Where should I start learning about Backup?

Begin with vendor docs for your platform, NIST SP 800-34 guidance, and practice restoring small workloads to understand constraints.

Category: Getting Started