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Processes and technologies for creating data copies and restoring systems to recover from data loss, corruption, or outages.
DESCRIPTION
Backup and recovery underpin resilience against failures, human error, and ransomware. Strategies include full, incremental, and differential backups plus snapshots. Goals are defined by RPO and RTO, guided by business impact analysis. The 3-2-1 rule and offsite, immutable copies reduce correlated risk. Regular restore testing validates recoverability and minimizes surprises during incidents. Cloud-native services simplify orchestration and lifecycle management across regions.
ALTERNATIVE DEFINITIONS
NIST CSRC Glossary
A copy of files and programs made to facilitate recovery if necessary.
Concise operational definition focused on recovery.
Microsoft Learn
Azure Backup delivers simple, secure, and cost-effective solutions to back up and recover your data from the Microsoft Azure cloud.
Vendor perspective on cloud-managed backup and restore.
RELATED TERMS
Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Materialized View Immutable Backup Recovery Point Objective Recovery Time Objective Versioning Tape Backup Restore Testing
COMPETING TERMS
RELATIONS
- Broader: Backup and Recovery
KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Data Storage & Operations Infrastructure Cloud Data Management
TARGET AUDIENCE
DevOps Engineer Cloud Architect Chief Information Officer Data Engineer Data Architect
EXTERNAL SOURCES
- Wikipedia - Backup
- NIST - Authoritative definition of backup
- AWS - Managed backup service overview
- Microsoft - Azure backup concepts
TOP QUESTIONS
What is the 3-2-1 rule in Data Backup and Recovery?
Keep three copies of data on two different media with one offsite. Modern variants add one immutable copy to combat ransomware.
Category: BestPractice
How do RPO and RTO guide Data Backup and Recovery design?
RPO defines acceptable data loss; RTO defines acceptable downtime. They drive backup frequency, technology choices, and recovery procedures.
Category: Requirements
What is the difference between backup and replication?
Replication mirrors data in near-real-time for availability, but can replicate corruption. Backups create recovery points for point-in-time restoration.
Category: Misunderstanding
How often should restores be tested in Data Backup and Recovery?
At least quarterly for critical systems, and after major changes. Automate tests and document results to prove recoverability.
Category: Testing
What is an immutable backup and why use it?
Immutable backups cannot be altered or deleted for a set period, protecting against ransomware and insider threats. WORM storage enforces immutability.
Category: Risk
How do snapshots fit into Data Backup and Recovery?
Snapshots provide fast, point-in-time volume states. They complement backups but often reside on the same platform, so offsite copies remain necessary.
Category: Example
What common mistakes undermine Data Backup and Recovery?
Only backing up locally, never testing restores, weak key or credential management, and excluding critical configurations or metadata.
Category: Mistakes
How does deduplication help Data Backup and Recovery?
It reduces storage by eliminating duplicate blocks, lowering costs and speeding backups and restores, especially for incremental strategies.
Category: BestPractice
Where should I start with Data Backup and Recovery planning?
Perform a business impact analysis, set RPO/RTO targets, inventory systems, and choose technologies aligned to risk and budget. Document and drill regularly.
Category: Requirements