A systematic approach to creating copies of data and systems to protect against data loss and ensure business continuity in the event of hardware failures, cyberattacks, natural disasters, or human error. Backup and recovery strategies involve both preventive measures and reactive procedures for data restoration.

Backup Strategies

Effective backup strategies follow the 3-2-1 rule: maintaining three copies of important data, storing them on two different types of media, with one copy kept offsite. Modern backup solutions include full backups, incremental backups, and differential backups, each offering different trade-offs between storage requirements and recovery time.

Recovery Planning

Recovery planning involves defining Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) to establish acceptable downtime and data loss thresholds. Disaster recovery procedures should be regularly tested to ensure data can be successfully restored when needed, and recovery processes should be documented and accessible to relevant personnel.