Data backup and disaster recovery

Terms related to backup and recovery, including definitions about making copies of data and words and phrases about restoring original data after a data loss event.

3-2-1 backup strategy explained: Is it effective? - The 3-2-1 backup strategy is a time-tested data protection and recovery methodology for ensuring that data is protected adequately and up-to-date backup copies of the data are available when needed.
asynchronous replication - Asynchronous replication is a store-and-forward approach to data backup and protection.
backup storage device - A backup storage device is a hardware component for storing copies of data.
bare-metal restore - A bare-metal restore (also referred to as bare-metal recovery or bare-metal backup) is a data recovery and restoration process where a computer is restored to a new machine, typically after a catastrophic failure.
business continuity management (BCM) - Business continuity management (BCM) is a framework for identifying an organization's risk of exposure to internal and external threats.
business continuity plan audit - A business continuity plan audit is a formalized method for evaluating how business continuity processes are being managed.
business impact analysis (BIA) - A business impact analysis (BIA) is a systematic process to determine and evaluate the potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations as a result of a disaster, accident or emergency.
call tree - A call tree is a layered hierarchical communication model used to notify specific individuals of an event and coordinate recovery if necessary.
change control - Change control includes the various steps needed to process changes made to a product or system.
cloud disaster recovery (cloud DR) - Cloud disaster recovery (cloud DR) is a combination of strategies and services intended to back up data, applications and other resources to public cloud or dedicated service providers.
cloud encryption - Cloud encryption is a service cloud storage providers offer whereby a customer's data is transformed using encryption algorithms from plaintext into ciphertext and stored in the cloud.
cloud hosting - Cloud hosting is the process of outsourcing an organization's computing and storage resources to a service provider that offers its infrastructure services in a utility model.
cloud SLA (cloud service-level agreement) - A cloud SLA (cloud service-level agreement) is an agreement between a cloud service provider and a customer that ensures a minimum level of service is maintained.
cloud storage - Cloud storage is a service model in which data is transmitted and stored on remote storage systems, where it is maintained, managed, backed up and made available to users over a network (typically the internet).
cloud storage provider - A cloud storage provider, sometimes referred to as a managed service provider, is a company that offers organizations and individuals the ability to place and retain data in an off-site storage system.
cloud storage service - A cloud storage service is a business that maintains and manages its customers' data and makes that data accessible over a network, usually the internet.
Cloud-to-Cloud Backup (C2C Backup) - C2C backup (cloud-to-cloud backup) is the practice of copying data stored on one cloud service to another cloud service.
cold backup (offline backup) - A cold backup is a backup of an offline database.
computer worm - A computer worm is a type of malware whose primary function is to self-replicate and infect other computers while remaining active on infected systems.
Conficker - Conficker is a fast-spreading worm that targets a vulnerability (MS08-067) in Windows operating systems.
contingency plan - A contingency plan is a course of action designed to help an organization respond effectively to a significant future incident, event or situation that may or may not happen.
crisis communication - Crisis communication is a strategic approach to corresponding with people and organizations during a disruptive event.
crisis management plan (CMP) - A crisis management plan (CMP) outlines how an organization should respond to a critical situation that if left unaddressed, could negatively affect its profitability, reputation or ability to operate.
data archiving - Data archiving moves data that is no longer actively used to a separate storage device for long-term retention.
data at rest - Data at rest is a term that is sometimes used to refer to all data in computer storage while excluding data that is traversing a network or temporarily residing in computer memory to be read or updated.
data center - A data center is a facility composed of networked computers, storage systems and computing infrastructure that organizations use to assemble, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data.
data cleansing (data cleaning, data scrubbing) - Data cleansing, also referred to as data cleaning or data scrubbing, is the process of fixing incorrect, incomplete, duplicate or otherwise erroneous data in a data set.
data deduplication - Data deduplication is a process that eliminates redundant copies of data and reduces storage overhead.
data deduplication hardware - Data deduplication hardware is disk storage that eliminates redundant copies of data and retains one instance to be stored.
data lifecycle management (DLM) - Data lifecycle management (DLM) is a policy-based approach to managing the flow of an information system's data throughout its lifecycle: from creation and initial storage to when it becomes obsolete and is deleted.
data loss - Data loss is the intentional or unintentional destruction of information.
data protection management (DPM) - Data protection management (DPM) is the administration, monitoring and management of backup processes to ensure backup tasks run on schedule and data is securely backed up and recoverable.
data recovery - Data recovery restores data that has been lost, accidentally deleted, corrupted or made inaccessible.
data recovery agent (DRA) - A data recovery agent (DRA) is a Microsoft Windows user account with the ability to decrypt data that was encrypted by other users.
data reduction - Data reduction lowers the amount of capacity required to store data.
data replication - Data replication is the process of copying data from one location to another.
data retention policy - In business settings, data retention is a concept that encompasses all processes for storing and preserving data, as well as the specific time periods and policies businesses enforce that determine how and for how long data should be retained.
database availability group (DAG) - A database availability group (DAG) is a high availability (HA) and data recovery feature of Exchange Server 2010.
Dell EMC Avamar - Dell EMC Avamar is a hardware and software data backup product.
differential backup - A differential backup is a data backup that copies all the files that have changed since the last full backup was performed.
Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 - India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA) is a comprehensive privacy and data protection law that recognizes the right of individuals, referred to as "data principals," to protect their personal data during the processing of that data for lawful purposes.
disaster recovery (DR) - Disaster recovery (DR) is an organization's ability to respond to and recover from an event that negatively affects business operations.
disaster recovery (DR) site - A disaster recovery (DR) site is a facility an organization can use to recover and restore its technology infrastructure and operations when its primary data center becomes unavailable.
disaster recovery (DR) test - A disaster recovery test is the examination of each step in a disaster recovery plan to ensure that an organization can recover data, restore business critical applications and continue operations after an interruption of services.
disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) - Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a cloud computing service model offered by third-party vendors that provides failover in the event of a natural catastrophe, power outage or other type of business disruption.
disaster recovery plan (DRP) - A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented, structured approach that describes how an organization can quickly resume operations after an unplanned incident.
disaster recovery team - A disaster recovery team is a group of individuals focused on planning, implementing, maintaining, auditing and testing an organization's business continuity and disaster recovery procedures.
disk mirroring (RAID 1) - Disk mirroring, also known as RAID 1, is the replication of data across two or more disks.
DRBD (Distributed Replicated Block Device) - DRBD (Distributed Replicated Block Device) is a Linux-based software component that facilitates the replacement of shared storage systems by networked mirroring.
Druva - Druva is a cloud data protection and management software company based in Sunnyvale, Calif.
emergency communications plan (EC plan) - An emergency communications plan (EC plan) is a document that provides guidelines, contact information and procedures for how information should be shared during all phases of an unexpected occurrence that requires immediate action.
emergency notification system - An emergency notification system is an automated method of contacting a group of people within an organization and distributing important information during a crisis.
encoding and decoding - Encoding and decoding are used in many forms of communications, including computing, data communications, programming, digital electronics and human communications.
encryption key management - Encryption key management is the practice of generating, organizing, protecting, storing, backing up and distributing encryption keys.
external hard drive - An external hard drive is a portable storage device that can be attached to a computer through a USB or Firewire connection, or wirelessly.
external storage device - An external storage device, also referred to as auxiliary storage and secondary storage, is a device that contains all the addressable data storage that is not inside a computer's main storage or memory.
fault tolerance - Fault tolerance is the capability of a system to deliver uninterrupted service despite one or more of its components failing.
flash storage - Flash storage is any type of drive, repository or system that uses flash memory to write and store data for an extended period.
floating gate transistor (FGT) - A floating gate transistor (FGT) is a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology capable of holding an electrical charge in a memory device that is used to store data.
forensic image - A forensic image (forensic copy) is a bit-by-bit, sector-by-sector direct copy of a physical storage device, including all files, folders and unallocated, free and slack space.
full backup - A full backup is the process of making at least one additional copy of all data files that an organization wishes to protect in a single backup operation.
ghost imaging (disk imaging) - In computing, ghost imaging, also called disk imaging, is a data backup process that creates an image of a computer's hard disk drive (HDD), solid-state drive (SSD) or one of the drive's partitions.
gzip (GNU zip) - Gzip (GNU zip) is a free and open source algorithm for file compression.
hierarchical storage management (HSM) - Hierarchical storage management (HSM) is policy-based management of data files that uses storage media economically and without the user being aware of when files are retrieved from storage.
hybrid backup - A hybrid backup is typically when organizations use both on-premises storage and the public cloud as data backup destinations, depending on specific requirements and use cases.
hybrid cloud storage - Hybrid cloud storage is an approach to managing cloud storage that uses both local and off-site resources.
image-based backup - Image-based backup creates a copy of an operating system and all the data associated with it, including the system state and application configurations.
incremental backup - An incremental backup is a backup type that only copies data that has been changed or created since the previous backup activity was conducted.
ISO/TS 22317 (International Organization for Standardization Technical Standard 22317) - ISO/TS 22317 is the first formal standard to address the business impact analysis process.
IT incident management - IT incident management is a component of IT service management (ITSM) that aims to rapidly restore services to normal following an incident while minimizing adverse effects on the business.
Linear Tape-Open (LTO) - Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is an open-format tape storage technology created by HPE, IBM and Seagate Technology.
LTO-7 (Linear Tape-Open 7) - LTO-7 is a tape format from the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Consortium released in late 2015.
LTO-8 (Linear Tape-Open 8) - LTO-8, or Linear Tape-Open 8, is a tape format from the Linear Tape-Open Consortium released in late 2017.
LTO-9 (Linear Tape-Open 9) - LTO-9 is a tape format from the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Consortium.
LUN masking - LUN masking is an authorization mechanism used in storage area networks (SANs) to make LUNs available to some hosts but unavailable to other hosts.
magnetic storage - Magnetic storage has been around in many forms since 1888 by Oberlan Smith, who publicized his audio recording on a wire in Electrical World.
magnetic tape storage - Magnetic tape is one of the oldest technologies for electronic data storage.
mirror site - A mirror site is a website or set of files on a computer server that has been copied to another computer server so that the site or files are available from more than one place.
natural disaster recovery - Natural disaster recovery is the process of recovering data and resuming business operations following a natural disaster.
network disaster recovery plan - A network disaster recovery plan is a set of procedures designed to prepare an organization to respond to an interruption of network services during a natural or humanmade catastrophe.
network load balancing (NLB) - Network load balancing (NLB) is a feature in multiple versions of the Microsoft Windows Server operating system (OS), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other cloud service providers that distribute network traffic among multiple servers or virtual machines (VMs) within a cluster to avoid overloading any one host and improve performance.
North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) - The North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) plan is a set of standards aimed at regulating, enforcing, monitoring and managing the security of the Bulk Electric System (BES) in North America.
off-site backup - Off-site backup is a method of backing up data to a remote server or to media that's transported off-site.
operational resilience - Operational resilience is a business's ability to respond to and overcome adverse circumstances during operation that might cause financial loss or disrupt business services.
Oracle RMAN (Oracle Recovery Manager) - Oracle RMAN (Oracle Recovery Manager) is a utility built into Oracle databases to automate backup and recovery; it includes features not available in third-party backup tools.
organization resilience - Organizational resilience is an organization's ability to anticipate issues ahead of time and develop a plan for handling identified problems.
pandemic plan - A pandemic plan is a documented strategy for business continuity in the event of a widespread outbreak of a dangerous infectious disease.
personal health record (PHR) - A personal health record (PHR) is an electronic summary of health information that a patient maintains control of themselves, as opposed to their healthcare provider.
purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) - A purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) is a standalone disk-based storage device that is configured and optimized for storing backup data.
ransomware recovery - Ransomware recovery is the process of resuming operations following a cyberattack that demands payment in exchange for unlocking encrypted data.
recovery point objective (RPO) - The recovery point objective (RPO) is the age of files that must be recovered from backup storage for normal operations to resume if a computer, system or network goes down as a result of a hardware, program or communications failure.
recovery time objective (RTO) - The recovery time objective (RTO) is the maximum tolerable length of time that a computer, system, network or application can be down after a failure or disaster occurs.
remote desktop - A remote desktop is a program or an operating system feature that allows a user to connect to a computer in another location, see that computer's desktop and interact with it as if it were local.
remote office/branch office (ROBO) - A remote office/branch office (ROBO) is a corporate business site located at some distance from the organization's headquarters or main office.
removable media - Removable media is any type of storage device that can be removed from a computer while the system is running.
secondary storage - Secondary storage is persistent storage for noncritical data that doesn't need to be accessed as frequently as data in primary storage or that doesn't have the same performance or availability requirements.
security incident - A security incident is an event that could indicate that an organization's systems or data have been compromised or that security measures put in place to protect them have failed.
security operations center (SOC) - A security operations center (SOC) is a command center facility in which a team of information technology (IT) professionals with expertise in information security (infosec) monitors, analyzes and protects an organization from cyberattacks.
software redundant array of independent disk (software RAID) - Software RAID, also known as virtual RAID, is a form of RAID (software redundant array of independent disk) performed on an internal server.
solid-state storage - Solid-state storage is a type of computer storage media that stores data electronically and has no moving parts.