What Is Data Backup and Backup Storage? Essential Guide

In 2024, the average cost of a data breach reached $4.88 million, according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report. The 2025 Verizon DBIR also reported 12,195 confirmed data breaches across 139 countries—the highest volume ever recorded. These figures highlight a harsh reality: data loss is no longer a rare event—it’s a daily risk for businesses of all sizes. Without a solid backup and storage strategy, even a minor incident can escalate into major operational and financial damage.

This guide to what is data backup and backup storage essential guide explores practical backup methods, storage setups, and recovery benchmarks that help businesses reduce downtime, meet compliance demands, and quickly restore critical operations after a disruption.

What Is Data Backup?

Data backup is the process of creating a secure copy of your organization’s important information and storing it in a secondary location. This allows businesses to restore lost or damaged data after events like cyberattacks, accidental deletions, or system failures, minimizing disruption and avoiding permanent loss.

For companies handling large amounts of data, this process is critical. A well-managed backup acts as your last line of defense, ensuring business continuity, protecting financial records, and meeting regulatory requirements for data protection. Without it, recovering from incidents like ransomware or hardware failure could take weeks, or might not be possible at all.

Key Data Backup Techniques

Each business has unique data backup needs, but these foundational techniques should be part of every strategy.

1. Full Backups

A complete snapshot of all data. While comprehensive, full backups require significant time and storage capacity. They’re ideal for initial setups or infrequent cycles.

2. Differential Backups

Focus on data changes since the last full backup. These backups are faster than full backups and require less space.

3. Incremental Backups

Only capture changes since the previous backup, making them the fastest and most storage-efficient. However, restoring data can be complex as you’ll need to piece together multiple backups.

Defining Key Metrics:

• Recovery Point Objective (RPO): The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time.
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The time goal for restoring data and operations after an incident.

Why Is Data Backup Crucial?

Without a strong data backup strategy, your business is vulnerable to costly disruptions and data loss. Here’s why backups are essential for operational stability:

• Cyberattacks: Ransomware and other threats can lock or destroy data. Backups offer a clean, secure copy to restore your systems without paying attackers.
• Human Errors: Files are often deleted or overwritten by mistake. A backup allows you to quickly recover the original data.
• System Failures: Hardware crashes and software issues are unavoidable. Backups ensure you can maintain business operations even when systems go down.

Effective backup systems reduce downtime, protect sensitive information, and ensure compliance with data protection regulations. To better understand your responsibilities under frameworks like GDPR, explore our guide on GDPR Awareness Training.

What Data Should Be Backed Up?

Not all data holds the same value—but losing the wrong files can halt your operations. A smart data backup plan should focus on information that’s essential for day-to-day business and long-term continuity. Prioritize the following:

• Business-Critical Documents: Contracts, financial records, reports, and legal files that support decision-making and compliance.
• Customer and Communication Data: Emails, support tickets, CRM logs, and any client-facing interactions that affect service delivery.
• Databases and System Configurations: Application data, user accounts, operating system files, and infrastructure settings that enable your platforms to run smoothly.

Backing up the right data ensures you're prepared to recover quickly—without losing core business functionality.

Types of Backup Solutions

A wide range of backup solutions ensures businesses of all sizes can protect their data effectively.

1. Hardware Backups

Local servers or external drives provide physical backups. While they’re reliable for small operations, they demand regular maintenance.

2. Software Solutions

These manage automated backups and ensure data integrity. They’re efficient and reduce manual intervention.

3. Cloud Backups

With scalability and offsite security, cloud storage offers easy access and robust protection. However, it depends on a stable internet connection.

4. Hybrid Solutions

Combining local and cloud backups provides maximum flexibility and resilience. This dual approach ensures recovery even in the most challenging scenarios.

Data Backup Storage Systems

The storage system you choose is just as important as your backup method.

• Removable Media: Ideal for small-scale backups, but capacity is limited.
• Redundant Systems: Mirrored copies provide continuous updates but require significant resources.
• External Drives/Servers: Great for large datasets but may experience slower performance over time.
• Cloud Services: Scalable and cost-efficient, perfect for modern businesses.

How Keepnet Can Defend Your Organization

Protecting your business isn’t just about having backups—it’s about reducing the risk of needing them in the first place. That’s where Keepnet comes in.

• The AI-powered Phishing Simulator helps employees detect and respond to sophisticated phishing attacks, significantly lowering your exposure to data breaches.
• Role-based Security Awareness Training delivers personalized learning paths to different departments, ensuring every employee understands the threats most relevant to their role.
• The Incident Responder enables your team to analyze and identify email threats 48.6 times faster, allowing you to contain and eliminate malicious messages before they escalate.

These tools are all part of Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management Platform, which uses automation, AI, and behavior analytics to prevent employee-driven risks, stop social engineering, and reinforce security awareness across your organization.

Explore how the full platform can help you reduce insider threats and strengthen your human firewall: Keepnet Human Risk Management Platform.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was updated on June 12, 2025.