{"id":5080,"date":"2020-03-31T23:11:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T22:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.n-able.com\/?p=5080"},"modified":"2021-04-13T03:11:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T02:11:25","slug":"incremental-backup-and-differential-backup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.n-able.com\/pt-br\/blog\/incremental-backup-and-differential-backup","title":{"rendered":"Incremental Backup Vs. Differential Backup"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a managed services provider (MSP), backing up and restoring data is one of your most important responsibilities. Cyberattacks, human error, and system malfunctions all stand to put vital business data in jeopardy. According to recent reports,\u00a061 data breaches<\/a>\u00a0compromised 1.5 million data records in the first month of 2020 alone.<\/p>\n

Companies with lost, damaged, or stolen data suffer more than a headache\u2014they take a direct hit to their bottom line. According to IBM, the average cost per lost or stolen record in a data breach is $150, while the average total cost of a data breach is a devastating\u00a0$3.86 million<\/a>. Yet despite such startling numbers, a study from Hiscox insurance company found that\u00a0seven out of ten companies<\/a>\u00a0are not prepared for a cyberattack.<\/p>\n

When it comes to protecting data from threats of every nature, data backup is a must. Exactly which backup method an MSP implements should be based on their unique needs and goals\u2014what matters most is that some form of backup system is in place.<\/p>\n

Data backup\u2014understanding all the options<\/b><\/h2>\n

While there are many ways to back up data, MSPs typically rely on the following three methods: full, incremental, and differential. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and they\u2019re typically used together to design a comprehensive server backup and recovery strategy.<\/p>\n

If accomplished effectively, these customized backup plans can minimize downtime and protect customers from millions of lost dollars and a tarnished reputation.<\/p>\n

Full backups\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

While incremental and differential backups are the most popular, you can only implement them after a full backup. With full backups, a complete copy of a dataset is produced. That means all system files, application files, user data, and more are copied and stored at a preselected location. Traditionally, that location was a backup tape or secondary drive. But these traditional storage destinations are continuing to become less popular as the sheer volume of data companies rely on grows to new heights. Instead, more MSPs are turning to the cloud\u2014where the sky’s the limit\u2014to\u00a0store their customers\u2019 data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The downside of a full backup is they can take a long time to run\u2014sometimes more time than a company has to spare. For this reason, the best backup software only requires a full backup once, never again. Full backups are also more storage-intensive. Drives that hold a lot of data may not be capable of a full backup, even if they run overnight.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s backup products are designed to perform incremental and differential backups after the original one-time full backup, using various methods to synthetically create a recoverable full backup without having to actually run full backups regularly.<\/p>\n

Incremental backups<\/b><\/p>\n

Incremental backups<\/a>\u00a0begin with a full backup. But once that initial full backup is taken, incremental backups only copy the parts of files that have changed since the previous backup. Once the incremental backup has run, it won\u2019t back up that file again until the next full backup, unless the file changes. This saves valuable time and storage space, making incremental backups the least resource-intensive of the three backup methods.<\/p>\n

There are three common forms of incremental backup:<\/p>\n