When Jerry terminated his sales director, he made the mistake of letting him go back to his desk unattended to collect his belongings. The sales director, angered at his dismissal, logged on to the company’s shared server and deleted six years worth of client data. Just under one terabyte, the files he sent to the trash can included information about client proposals, projects, contracts, and payments.

But once Jerry caught wind of what had happened, he simply rolled his eyes, picked up the phone, and called his Managed Services provider. “I had to terminate an employee and he deleted a lot of data. Can you please see to it that everything is restored as soon as possible?”

The response? “No problem. We’ll have it done in about an hour.”

A startling number of businesses don’t implement a disaster recovery solution because they think that regular data backups are sufficient for that purpose. Just as surprising, a high number of businesses don’t implement a data backup solution because they’ve grown comfortable with the idea that a disaster recovery solution provides all the data backup they need. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Data backup and disaster recovery solutions are unique and both can play a pivotal role in the long-term stability and success of your organization. Jerry’s data backup solution was sufficient to restore the deleted data, but what if a water-main had flooded the building and ruined all the machines? Data backup wouldn’t have restored all the applications on the machines or brought the network back online. The differences between data backup and disaster recovery are important to understand if your IT infrastructure is going to provide security and stability though all types of challenges you might face. Here are some of the differences between the two:

Data backup gives users a way to quickly recover files that are accidentally erased or become corrupted.

Disaster recovery gives entire organizations a way to restore full datasets and software applications in the event of a catastrophe.

Data backup can be performed onsite with network attached storage, thumb-drives, or other hardware.

Disaster recovery solutions should be physically detached from your network so that any primary failure doesn’t spill over to your DR solution.

Data backup can include multiple restoration points or file versions.

Disaster recovery solutions primarily focus on restoring a business to its most recent steady-state so that operations can begin again after an incident.

Data backup can take place in the cloud, as well as using SaaS solutions that sync with workstations and mobile devices.

Disaster recovery solutions deployed in the cloud can often take days or weeks to restore an entire network.

Data backup is about keeping data safe and secure in a secondary location.

Disaster recovery is a multi-part strategy that addresses sudden loss of electricity, connectivity, or hardware functionality, as well as any security intrusion or damage done by malware.

Data backup is about having a backup copy of files so small mistakes (like accidental deletions) can be fixed quickly.

Disaster recovery is about getting your business back to operational after a large catastrophe.

Understanding the differences between data backup and disaster recovery means understanding the practical applications of each and the benefits and drawbacks of both within the entire IT environment. While there is some overlap in process between the two, the purpose of one stands in stark contrast to the other. Treating a data backup as a disaster recovery solution is shortsighted, just as viewing a disaster recovery solution as a way to store your critical data is inefficient. Instead, your organization needs to view both as separate entities that are both essential to business continuity.

When choosing the best way to safeguard your data and your network, make sure to put measures in place that address both backup storage and what to do in the event of a catastrophe. Click here to learn how Mosiac NetworX can help implement a solution that addresses all of your data backup and disaster recovery needs!