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 how file level backups differ from full system backups.
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.
In the event of a catastrophe, IT admins have to manually go through each file and decide what needs to be recovered. This could be a tedious and time-consuming process. Since IT admins select which data to back up, they might accidentally miss out on backing up important files or folders.
When performing backups, IT admins must decide which folders to back up. For example, if IT admins only perform backups for files and folders stored on the C Drive but do not perform backups for data stored on the D Drive if any employee stores their documents on the D Drive, their data will be lost forever if disaster strikes.
Applications may have built-in system settings that prevent the backup of app data, documents, or other data. This means the applications might not be fully restored if the device it runs on unexpectedly fails.
Lastly, if IT admins only back up files and folders but don’t perform backups for system data, if the device needs to be recovered, the IT admins will have to reset system settings. This will lengthen a company’s Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and disrupt company operations.
How full backups can help with comprehensive backup and recovery
With full system backups, users can safeguard the entire operating system, applications, files, and folders simultaneously. This benefits 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 version 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.
How Synology solutions allows IT admins to flexibly back up and restore data
Synology’s full system backups are the ideal solution for businesses as it safeguards everything—from files and applications to entire operating systems—across all devices without needing to manually back up select files or folders.
Full system backups also secure system settings and hardware configurations so that if data has to be restored, everything can be returned to its exact state.
However, companies might mistakenly believe that full system backups have longer restoration times and consume more space.
Synology offers flexible disaster recovery options, including bare-metal restoration, P2V (instant physical to virtual restoration), or self-service recovery for individual files, empowering employees to restore quickly restore files or folders.
With features such as data deduplication and compression, redundant backups are eliminated, minimizing storage and bandwidth use to maximize backup speeds and storage capacity.
In the event of a disaster, Synology’s backup solutions allow businesses to restore everything at once, ensuring that all data and systems are as good as they were before.
| Backup Type | Synology’s full system backup solution | Traditional file-level backups |
|---|---|---|
| Backup configuration | Automatically backs up everything | Difficult to define backup scope as well as complex backup settings as IT admins have to pick and choose files and folders to protect |
| Workload protection | Comprehensive workload protection (Entire operating system, applications, files, and folders) |
Partial workload protection (Only files and folders that were backed up) |
| Backup speeds | Fast backup speeds (Captures an image of your entire system quickly) |
Slow backup speeds (Backing up a large number of files will result in slow backup speeds) |
| Storage space usage | Saves more space | Saves less space |
| Recovery methods | Full data recovery (Bare-metal recovery, P2V restoration, or select files or folders only) |
Only the 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 full system backups with Synology data protection solutions. 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.