What is data backup?

Any organization with computing devices that is serious about their business must have some form of data backup. Backing up data means that digital information is being preserved by creating a copy that is separated in some way from the original data source, which is currently in use. This backup can be referenced or used to create another copy of the data when the original data is corrupted or lost. This way, an organization is safe from a disaster were important data cannot be recovered.

Data is constantly vulnerable to mechanical failures, human error, and malicious attacks.

• Human Error: Someone could accidently delete important data or break the hardware that houses it.

• Mechanical Failures: This may be the most common reason for data loss. The simple fact is that machines break down. Anything from a software bug, to dust, to having one of the many moving parts in a disk or tape storage device suddenly break could cause data to be corrupted or lost.

• Malicious Attacks: Cyber criminals and malware are a constant threat to any computer system and its data.

Because of these constant risks to data, small business computer systems and even personal computing devices should have at least one iteration of data backup, which is also called “secondary storage”. Medium-to-Large enterprises should have both secondary and tertiary storage so that there are three iterations of data that are separated and safe from the infection of one of the storage systems.

There are three general types of data storage mediums that can be used for data backup:

Tape Backup
Tape backup is a form of data backup using magnetic tape as the medium for storage instead of hard disks. Data stored on tape must be accessed sequentially unlike a disk drive, which provides random access to data elements. This is one of the disadvantages of tape because it can take more time to wind the tape reels to the piece of data you want. It also takes a longer time to write large amounts of data. However, tape is especially well suited for sequential data streaming. Although tape storage is older technology that is being used less and less, it still maintains a few advantages such as low unit cost and long term data storage integrity.

Disk Backup
Disk backup uses disk drives that contain spinning disks and moving read/write heads. They use optical or magnetic media to record data. Disks and tape tend to be more volatile and breakable than solid-state drives, but are less likely to leak data in long term backup and archival storage. Both tape and disks with magnetic mediums are vulnerable to magnetic wave damage. A disk can retrieve and write data faster than tape, but solid-state storage is the fastest.

Solid-state backup
Solid-state backup (flash memory) uses solid-state memory, which consists of microchips with no moving parts to store data. Solid-state memory uses the ‘on’ or ‘off’ state of capacitors on a circuit board to write the ones and zeros of binary code. Only non-volatile memory would be used for storage since it can store data without a running power source and it is better at conserving data long term. However, solid-state drives can not be as large as disk drives and data tends to leak from capacitors over time.

Data backup is basically just backing up files in another location so you don’t lose information. You’ll have your data in backup to restore any files that may get lost on your primary computer. There are many different ways to backup data, depending on the amount to be backed up, and how important the data is. Some of the most common data storage solutions are:

Tape: Device that stores data on magnetic tape. Large capacity for storing data, inexpensive, constantly storing data; user can only access specific data by starting at the beginning and rolling through the tape until desired data is located

CD-R/DVD-R: Inexpensive, only useable once (you’re able to access the information, but can’t write any new data onto the disk) Hard Drives: Cost per gigabyte is very cheap (if bought in bulk), copying data is very easy, prone to physical malfunctions

CD-RW/DVD-RW: RW stands for ReWritable, can be rewritten any number of times. Each time you want to rewrite your disk, you must rewrite and re-burn the entire disk.

Flash Drive: The most convenient (in my opinion), can fit in your pocket, can store up to a gigabyte of data (depending on the size purchased), typically $20 or less, won’t scratch or get ruined as easily, easy to plug in to any computer with USB port, data durability estimated at 10 years

FTP: Online solution which allows you to upload your data, good option for important data that isn’t too large, most FTP solutions offer extensive security features to protect your data