From Panic to Peace of Mind: Mastering Data Backup & Recovery

Introduction

Data breach costs hit a whopping $4.88 million in 2024, marking a 10% increase from 2023 (Source: IBM). Also, 94% of the businesses that experienced data loss have never recovered.
Today 90% of global businesses consider data as one of the valuable intangible assets. The surging reliance of industries on data for insight-driven decision-making has fueled its importance and security. Unfortunately, data breach incidents are also on the rise, resulting in mammoth financial losses for several businesses. One of the major reasons why the targeted businesses fail to recover is the lack of a secured backup and prompt recovery system. Thus, as data continues to be the backbone for industries across the globe, data backup & recovery is becoming more than essential.
This comprehensive data-saving guide sheds light on the importance of data backup and recovery for data-driven industries.

What is data backup & recovery?

The process of data backup and recovery aims to secure data by duplicating and storing it in a safe place. There are several means for backing data, ranging from hard drives to data backup software. While backup is the process of protecting and storing data in a safe place, recovery is the process of retrieving and restoring data to avoid downtime.
The backup copy of the data is immutable, which is called a snapshot. This snapshot cannot be altered even if there is a mutation attack like ransomware. Backup & recovery is an essential onsite and cloud-based technology solution, empowering businesses to secure their valuable data for business and compliance reasons.

Significance of data backup and recovery

With the rising instances of data breaches bankrupting businesses worldwide, the importance of data backup & recovery cannot be undermined. Every company active in cyberspace needs to implement a robust data backup & recovery plan to mitigate both exposure and financial risks. Having an organised backup and recovery plan assists the responsible personnel or authority in getting a transparent view of the crisis scenario - and strategise restoration at the earliest.
The lack of a robust data backup and recovery plan can lead to devastating consequences- inluding the loss of valuable data stored in hardware devices, failure of productivity, financial losses, pause of projects, and other damages.
On the contrary, a robust data backup & recovery plan empowers organisations to have data readily available when needed, even in times of catastrophe. Additionally, it also aids businesses in retaining customers’ trust and prevents the occurrences of repeated scenarios.

Types of Backups

Backups are often clubbed into 3 categories:

• Full backups: A full backup ensures that every piece of data from a server, database, VM, or any networked data source is secured. The duration can vary, often extending to several hours or days based on data size. Modern data management tools reduce the frequency of full backups and increase their speed.
• Incremental backups: Incremental backup only captures new data since the last one was performed, requiring a full backup before any incremental backups can be initiated.
• Differential backups: In this process, the changes are tracked from the last full backup and not the previous incremental one. Differential backups copy only specific data that is different. The process is extremely efficient to backup unaltered data, avoiding duplication, and saving space in the backup storage.



Crucial elements of data backup and recovery

Both on-premise and cloud databases are vulnerable to various issues like space problems, power interruptions, or application failures. The first step to data backup and recovery starts with a strategic backup & recovery plan. Here are the pointers to be kept in mind while creating the plan.
• Risk Assessment: This approach involves identifying potential issues in network, hardware, and software security that can impact business operations.
• Advance Impact Analysis: Assessing the impact of data loss helps in timely restoring data from Google backup and other cloud storage services - without interrupting working hours or minimal downtime.
• Deciding backup frequency: Data backup is not a one-time phenomenon and should be executed at regular intervals. Thus, a data backup plan always takes into consideration the periodic frequencies for systematic data backup.
• Storage consideration matters: When selecting a recovery method, one of the main factors to mind is storage requirements. Utilising compression for backups and archived log files can lower storage expenses in your database environment.
• Comprehensive master plan: Security analysts or experts must follow a comprehensive backup & recovery plan mentioning the time and days required. The master plan will also jot down the tools programs used, backup location, and the personnel performing backup protocols.



Strategies for data backup and recovery


• On-premise backups: This approach involves storing data in a separate hard drive accessible through a local shared network. Onsite backups share the same network as local hard drives.
• Auto backup of older data: Scheduling auto backup of older data every ten minutes helps an organisation retrieve the previous version of the backup without any manual interference. This ensures easy access to all the previous versions and the ability to detect alterations made, if any.
• Multiple offsite backups: Having multiple versions of the backed data in separate physical locations eliminates the risks of data loss in times of crisis. Also, multiple offsite backups allow employees seamless access through an internet connection.
• Removable media: Storing data in removable devices such as USB, CD, or floppy disks and later moving it to accessible storage is an excellent way to back data without the internet.
• External Hard Drives: External hard drives have more storage capacity to store more than a terabyte of data compared to USBs.
• Backup software: These software programs help to backup data by minimising redundancy and guiding users with the location of storage to backup data according to priority.
• Cloud-based backup services: Cloud backup recovery allows users to automatically backup data and securely store them in remote locations. This data can be easily accessed using a secure internet connection. With the cloud, businesses can customise backup services as per their specific requirements.


Conclusion

With data breaches and data losses rising at an alarming rate, there is a surging demand for data recovery or cyber forensics experts. Enroll in our cyber forensics course for beginners to build a flourishing career as a data recovery expert.