As data is the lifeline of businesses, companies must implement strong and reliable backup and recovery solutions to safeguard business-critical workloads against ransomware attacks and other threats.
In this blog post, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of file and full backups for organizations looking to create a robust data protection strategy.
Beware of blind spots when implementing file backups
Many users might mistakenly believe that file backups are more flexible as they help maximize storage capacity and free up space that would otherwise be taken up with unnecessary data. However, companies cannot thoroughly protect all their data with file backups.
Even though file backups allow employees to pick and choose files or folders to back up and restore, IT admins must go through each file manually, decide what to back up, and configure complex settings. This could be a tedious and time-consuming process.
Since employees manually select which data to back up, there is a risk that errors might be made along the way. Employees might forget to back up important files or folders, which could be lost forever if disaster strikes, as not all data is being backed up.
Data recovery could take a while, as employees must review the data and choose what needs to be recovered.
How full backups can help with comprehensive backup and recovery
With image-based full backups, users can safeguard the entire operating system, applications, files, and folders simultaneously. This is beneficial for businesses, as they can rest assured that all their data can be completely restored to its original state.
If users perform backups on a regular basis, this ensures that the latest versions of all applications, operating systems, files, folders, etc., have been backed up and are consistent across all environments. This reduces compatibility issues when devices have to be restored.
Performing backups also allows businesses to reduce their RPOs and RTOs and restore data quickly.
Image-based full backups allow IT admins to restore data flexibly. If employees want to restore their entire device, they can choose to perform bare-metal recovery, P2V restoration, or recovery of select files only.
Note that image-based full backups take up a fair amount of space. However, thanks to compression and deduplication technologies, businesses can maximize their storage capacity.
In the event of a disaster, image-based full backups allow businesses to restore everything at once, ensuring that all data and systems are as good as they were before.
| Backup Type | Image-based full backup | File backup |
|---|---|---|
| Backup configuration | Automatically backs up everything | Manually pick and choose files and folders to protect |
| Workload protection | Entire operating system, applications, files, and folders | Only files and folders that were backed up |
| Backup speeds | Captures an image of your entire system quickly | Each and every file is manually backed up |
| Deduplication technologies | Yes | No |
| Recovery methods | Full data recovery (Bare-metal recovery, P2V restoration, or select files or folders only) | Partial data recovery (Select files or folders that were backed up) |
Secure your organizations today with Synology data protection solutions
For businesses looking to secure their data thoroughly, it’s time to implement image-based full backups with Synology data protection solutions.
Implement a comprehensive data protection solution by backing up all company data, including system files, applications, user files, and folders, to minimize the risk of business data loss and maximize storage capacity with compression and deduplication technologies.
With a streamlined data backup and recovery process, businesses can safeguard their data against a wide range of threats and ensure quick data recovery in case anything goes wrong. This allows organizations to focus on day-to-day operations with peace of mind and recover their data confidently, even in the face of disruption.
Click here to find out more about Synology’s on-prem data protection solutions.
Click here to find out more about Synology’s cloud data protection solutions.