Understanding the Types of Cloud Data Backup Solutions

Our digital world revolves around data, and hence it is often termed the fuel of the digital universe. Data drives businesses. An intelligent use of data has the potential to solve many issues for businesses and help them shine in this competitive market.

This is why data holds great significance, and therefore the security of data should be the utmost priority for any organization.

Different Methods to Back Up Data

The data backup can be done in several ways, but broadly, they are classified into 2 methods:

1. Hardware-Based
2. Cloud-Based

Data backup can be taken in the hardware like disks, etc. This is, however, neither cost-efficient nor reliable. Hardware is susceptible to destruction and, hence, requires a lot of maintenance, which makes hardware-based data backup a costlier option. The chances of losing data are high, which can be a nightmare for enterprises.

Cloud-based data backup is both affordable and reliable. It offers high scalability, so you can opt for resources depending on your needs. You do not have to invest capital in hardware even if you do not need it. Let us learn more about Cloud Data Backup in the next section.

What is Cloud Data Backup?

Cloud Data Backup is also called Online Backup or Remote Backup. This offers an opportunity for enterprises to back up data without the hassle of maintaining and investing capital in the hardware.

In today’s time, data backup has become synonymous with data protection. Increasing cyber threats, equipment failures, and disasters have compelled organizations to use the cloud for storage and backup.

Now let’s learn more about different subcategories of cloud baseddata backup.

Types of Cloud Data Backup

Full Backup:

You might be aware of this type of backup earlier as well. It is the easiest to understand. In this cloud-based data backup, all of your data is backed up at regular intervals. It backs up all the files, objects, and even bytes. When you restore the data, it takes the same amount of time as it takes in the backup, which makes it time-consuming for both the backup and restore. You will get the data that you have from the latest backup.

Suppose you have 2 files of 1 GB each, and each one of them takes about 5 minutes to backup. Hence, the total time will be 2*1GB*5 minutes = 10 minutes.

Now the next day if a third file is added of 1 GB, then what will be the time?

3*1GB*5minutes = 15 minutes

This way, as the amount of data increases or decreases, the backup time also scales up or scales down accordingly. The restoration time is the same as the time in the last backup.

Differential Backup:

To eliminate the problem of the time-consuming process in the full backup, differential backup was engineered to reduce the time.

How?

By backing up the data, that is modified only after the full backup. This means that instead of taking the backup of the whole data every day, only the altered data is allowed to back up. This significantly reduces the time while allowing the data backup in total.

So let us get back to the same example.

On the first day, it will take 10 minutes to back up the whole data, as it will be the full backup. But the next day, it will take only 5 minutes as there is only 1 new file.

But here is one drawback.

Suppose on the third day there is one more file added. What do you think? How much time will it take to back up? 5 minutes!

Well, the answer is no!

Why?

That is because, in differential backup, every piece of data is backed up and modified after the full backup. So, it will take 10 minutes because 1 file was added on the second day while another file was added on the third day.

Incremental Backup:

So again, differential backup helped, but not as we expected. Hence, Incremental Backup came to our rescue.

How does this help?

Unlike the differential backup, which stores data modified after the full backup, the incremental backup stores the data modified after the last backup.

So considering the above example, it will take only 5 minutes to back up the data on the third day as it has only 1 file to be stored after the last backup, which took 10 minutes in case of differential backup.

This again reduced the time of the data backup significantly.

Mirror Backup:

In simple terms, it is the exact copy of the source data. The word “mirror” makes it easy to understand. Just like the mirror reflects your exact copy and your actions in real time, mirror backup does the same. It copies the source data in real time and retains its latest version.

This takes considerably less time, both in backup and retrieving the data.

However, this too comes with its demerits. As it backs up the data in real-time, it takes up a huge storage space, which increases the cost and maintenance. Also, it has another major problem. If the data in the source is deleted or corrupted, the same issue will be reflected in the mirror backup. Hence, if a file is deleted accidentally, it will also be deleted in the mirror backup.

Therefore, while it is good in speed, it is not a reliable option.

On the Final Note

As per a recent study, 91% of organizations use backup to safeguard their databases (Source). Most of them are now switching to cloud backup solutions because they are more reliable and affordable. The Cloud Backup Market size is estimated at USD 5.71 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 17.29 billion by 2029 (Source).

When every enterprise is taking advantage of the cloud, why should you stay behind?

Zebyte Cloud offers advanced cloud backup solutions that help you protect your data with the latest security technology.

So when are you switching to Zebyte Cloud for cloud backup?

Learn about our cloud-based services here.

Read more to gain knowledge on cloud computing here.