Data backup and restore involves creating a copy of any data that you have, storing it in a secure place as a secondary copy, and restoring it back to the primary place it is used from in case of data loss or bleach. This is in an attempt to guard against loss of critical data, grounding of services or operations in case of data loss or failure. Data restoration and backup is necessary for both individuals and corporates, and can help guard against costly disruptions and losses that arise when data is lost.
Why Data Backup and Restoration
Loss of storage devices is common, as well as data corruption or hack. Some of the reasons why an institution needs to backup data or restore backed up data include:
- Physical loss of storage devices such as computers, mobile phones, hard drives etc.
- Destruction of data through hardware failure or fire
- Corruption of stored data
- Cyber attacks leading to inaccessibility of the data
- Software failure, necessitating fresh installation
- Auditing the data fidelity
How Data Backup and Restore Works
Any important data that is stored in soft copy needs to be guarded against loss. To achieve this, several things can be done. First, a copy of the data needs to be created, and this can be a static copy that is done every day, hour, weekly or even monthly, depending on the need. It could also be an incremental backup that is done continuously, ensuring that the back up copy is always similar to the original copy.
When data is lost, or there is need for the back up data copy to be used, one needs to go ahead and restore the backup data to the original place. This could involve restoring the data to a new phone, formatted device, corrupted drive or simply to the place where the data was originally stored.
