Full Backup vs. Incremental Backup vs. Differential Backup

A full backup is a total copy of your organization's entire data assets, which backs up all of your files into a single version. An incremental backup covers all files that have been changed since the last backup was made, regardless of backup type. A differential backup is a cumulative backup of all files changed since the last backup. 

Pros and Cons of Full Backups

Few organizations run full backups on a regular basis. More commonly, companies use full backups on a periodic basis, such as weekly or biweekly.

Pros of Full Backups

  • Potential for fast, total recovery of data assets.
  • Simple access to the most recent backup version.
  • All back-ups are contained in a single version.
  • Minimal time needed to restore business operations.

Cons of Full Backups

  • Requires the most storage space.
  • Demands the most bandwidth.
  • Relatively time-consuming to complete the backup process.

Pros and Cons of Incremental Backups

If your business runs a full backup on Friday and an incremental backup on Monday, the incremental backup would copy all files changed between Friday and Monday. If you run a differential backup on Tuesday and an incremental backup on Thursday, the incremental backup would affect all files modified between Tuesday and Thursday.

Out of the three methodologies discussed in this blog post, this approach requires the least storage space, time, and bandwidth. While it's not the easiest approach to restore your assets in case of disaster, it can be combined well with other approaches if your organization has a high volume of data or applications.

Pros of Incremental Backups

  • Minimal time to complete backup.
  • Requires the least storage space.
  • Demands the least bandwidth.

Cons of Incremental Backups

  • Recovery time may be slower.
  • Requires a full backup in addition to incremental backups for complete recovery.
  • Recovery requires the piecing together of data from multiple backup sets.
  • Small potential for incomplete data recovery if one or more backup sets has failed.

Pros and Cons of Differential Backups

If your organization runs a full backup on Friday and a differential backup on Monday, the differential backup would cover all files changed between Friday and Monday. In addition, a differential backup that occurs on Wednesday would cover all files changed since Friday's full backup.

This option requires more storage and in most cases, longer lengths of time to complete than the incremental backup approach. However, it's a faster route to recovery since only two backup sets are needed to restore your assets.

Pros of Differential Backups

  • Requires less storage space than full backups.
  • Only two backups (last full and most recent incremental) are required for recovery.

Cons of Differential Backups

  • Slower than incremental.
  • Requires an initial full backup for complete recovery.
  • IT will need to piece together two backup sets.
  • Potential for failed recovery if one or more backups is incomplete.

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