Backup vs Disaster Recovery: Know the Difference

"We have backups" is one of the most dangerous sentences in IT, because it is often confused with "we can recover". Backups and disaster recovery are related but different, and businesses need both.

Backup

A backup is a copy of your data stored separately so that it can be restored after accidental deletion, corruption, hardware failure or ransomware. Backups protect information.

Disaster recovery

Disaster recovery (DR) is the ability to bring entire systems back into operation — servers, applications, databases, networking and access — within a defined time after a major failure such as a fire, flood, data centre outage or severe cyber-attack. DR protects operations.

Two numbers that define your needs

• Recovery Point Objective (RPO): how much data you can afford to lose, measured in time. An RPO of four hours means backups every four hours or more frequently.
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO): how quickly systems must be running again. An RTO of two hours requires pre-built recovery environments, not just backup files.

The 3-2-1 rule

Keep at least three copies of important data, on two different types of storage, with one copy off site. Add an immutable or offline copy to protect against ransomware.

Test restores regularly

A backup that has never been restored is an assumption. Schedule restore tests every quarter and full DR drills at least annually.

Document the recovery plan

Who declares a disaster? Who restores which systems? How do users connect to the recovery environment? Write it down and keep it accessible offline.

Cloud makes DR more affordable

Cloud-based DR lets you keep recovery environments ready without buying duplicate hardware.

The bottom line

Define your RPO and RTO, back up accordingly, build a recovery plan and test it. UbiFi Managed Cloud includes both backups and tested recovery plans.

Learn more about Managed Cloud from UbiFi, or talk to our team.