Your data powers your business — so what do you do if it’s corrupted or accidentally deleted? 

Database backup and recovery protect and restore essential systems, maintaining access to critical information. 

In this guide, we’ve highlighted several key backup and recovery techniques, as well as strategies to keep your information safe and accessible.

What is database backup and recovery?

Database backup and recovery techniques refer to the process of making copies of your data and restoring it when things go wrong. These techniques ensure business continuity, protect against loss, and keep your systems running smoothly.

Difference between backup and recovery

Data backup and recovery are two sides of the same coin, but they serve very different purposes. 

Backup is all about preparation. You proactively create copies of your data before anything goes wrong, often on a schedule, using tools that offer automated data replication, snapshot utilities, or cloud storage services. The goal is to preserve data in a safe, restorable state.

Recovery is more reactive. It kicks in after a problem like a crash, corruption, or accidental deletion occurs, using a backup to restore systems to a functional state. Recovery tools and processes include rollbacks, rollforwards, point-in-time restores, and full system restores. 

Types of data backup techniques

Not every situation calls for a full copy of your database. There are several types of database backups, each designed to suit different scenarios. Here’s how the main approaches compare.

Full database backups

A full database backup creates a complete copy of your entire database. It’s thorough and straightforward but also time-consuming and storage-heavy. While full backups are great for clean restore points, you’ll likely rack up quite the cloud bill if you create them all the time.

Incremental database backup

Incremental backups only save data that changed since the last backup of any type. This makes them fast, lightweight, and ideal for frequent backup schedules. It’s the same principle as iCloud only backing up your new photos rather than your entire camera roll. The downside of incremental backups is that recovery means painstakingly stitching together multiple smaller files. 

Differential database backup

Differential backups record everything that changed since the last full backup. They take up more space than incremental backups, but it’s quicker to action a recovery, since you only need two files: the last full and the last differential. It’s a happy medium for teams that want efficiency without complex restore chains.

Types of data recovery techniques

When things go sideways, recovery techniques determine how gracefully you bounce back. Here are the main types to be aware of.

Rollback and rollforward recovery

Rollback reverts a database to a previous state. Rollforward applies any committed transactions listed in logs to catch your system back up. Think of it as rewinding and fast-forwarding a movie to get to the exact scene you want without missing a beat.

Point-in-time recovery (PITR)

PITR restores your system to an exact moment, down to the second. It’s perfect for fixing human errors, since you can just undo the mistake and revert the database to a previous state.

Media and disaster recovery

Media and disaster recovery involves restoring from a backup when hardware, environments, or storage systems fail. Whether it’s a corrupted disk, a cloud region outage, or a flooded server room, this is your get-back-online plan.

Benefits of database backup

Backing up your database is a safety measure, but it’s also a productivity booster, a cost-saver, and all-around sanity-preserver. Here’s why it pays off.

Faster data recovery

A solid backup setup lets you recover from outages quickly instead of scrambling to piece together what went missing.

Stronger data security

Encrypted, well-managed backups protect your data even if something goes wrong in production. Think of them as your digital fireproof safe.

Easier data management

Consistent restore points and reliable snapshots make organizing and maintaining your data easier. Backups provide a safety net so you can easily test new processes and recover any data lost to human error.

Fivetran takes the weight off your shoulders even more by handling high-volume data replication automatically, so your pipelines stay clean without constant babysitting. With built-in transformations, you get structured, analysis-ready data that’s easy to manage.

Improved performance

Offloading historical or low-priority data into backup storage lessens the load on the main network. As a result, production systems run faster and more efficiently. 

Controlled costs

An effective backup strategy that includes incremental, differential, and tiered storage approaches helps you avoid unnecessary storage bloat, surprise cloud bills, and pricey emergency fixes by reducing how often you duplicate full datasets. 

Better compliance

Auditors love well-kept backups. Retention policies and audit trails save you from frantic last-minute searches when compliance season rolls around.

Challenges of database backup

Even the best backup strategies come with hurdles. Knowing them ahead of time helps you build a plan that won’t fall apart if disaster strikes.

Storage requirements and cost

Storing several backups can be extremely resource-intensive. Long-term retention, multiple environments, and compliance needs can increase storage costs even further if you’re not paying attention.

Meeting recovery time objectives (RTO) 

An RTO is the maximum amount of time a company can tolerate a system being down after a disaster. The larger your database backup, the longer it takes to restore, making it tricky to meet strict recovery timelines.

Data consistency and correctness

Backups are only useful if they’re accurate. But dealing with distributed systems or multiple schema changes makes it challenging to capture clean, consistent data. If you can’t track information effectively, your backup could suffer.

How to create a database backup and recovery plan

Creating a solid database backup and recovery strategy could save the day if data is lost or ends up corrupted. Here’s how to build one that holds up when things get messy.

Step 1: Identify your most important data

Not all data is created equal. Start by figuring out which information is mission-critical. Prioritize data that would cause real chaos if lost, like customer transaction records, payment card data, or inventory counts during peak season.

Step 2: Consider your recovery objectives

Next, define your recovery point objective (RPO), which is the maximum amount of data loss you could reasonably accept, and your RTO, or the time your critical system could stand to be out of action.

These numbers determine how you build your entire strategy. If a crisis strikes, leaders will need realistic expectations of how long systems will be down. So be honest about your tolerance for downtime, not optimistic.

Step 3: Choose between online and offline backups

Online backups can be recovered with minimal interruption to your services. Offline backups require scheduled downtime, but they’re usually simpler and more controlled. 

Both options have their merits, so choose the one that matches your system behavior and how disruptive downtime would be.

Step 4: Build a backup strategy based on system capabilities

Depending on your infrastructure, you might rely on a full, incremental, differential, or hybrid approach. Whichever option you choose, make efficiency your goal. Pick a strategy that protects your data without creating backup bloat.

Step 5: Use data replication and backup tools

Finally, bring in tools that automate the heavy lifting. Real-time database replication, automated orchestration, and consistent pipelines save you from having to carry out a manual backup at 2 a.m. 

Use cases for database backup

Backups are the quiet heroes of your data ecosystem — unnoticed when everything works, but indispensable the moment something doesn’t. Here’s where they shine the most:

• Disaster recovery (DR): Backups help you recover from any data loss caused by outages, corruption, or human error.
• Database migration: Database records give you a safe rollback option when migrating files over to a new system.
• Archival and compliance: When you store historical data securely, you can easily track down records without digging through chaos.

How Fivetran supports your backup and recovery strategy

Fivetran strengthens your backup and recovery strategy by ensuring your pipelines are always up to date, consistent, and ready for restoration when needed.

Our platform’s automated change data capture (CDC) replication creates real-time data mirrors from hundreds of sources, ensuring backups are accurate and comprehensive. With built-in transformations and hands-off maintenance, your data is always structured, synced, and deployment-ready.

Fivetran also makes backup and recovery cost-effective by handling connectors and schema changes automatically. With usage-based pricing, you only pay for the data you move, reducing overhead while maintaining reliable backups. 

Get started for free or book a live demo to see how Fivetran can help you build an effective backup and recovery strategy.

FAQs

What are the best practices for data recovery and backup?

Data recovery and backup best practices include creating regular snapshots, using incremental backups, automating monitoring, and creating clear backup and recovery procedures to ensure fast, reliable restoration when things go wrong.

What is disaster recovery backup?

Disaster recovery backup is a copy of critical data and systems designed to restore operations after major outages, cyberattacks, or natural disasters.

What types of data sources typically need to be recovered?

Databases, application servers, file systems, cloud storage, and transactional records are among the most common data sources that require recovery.

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