Continuous Data Protection: Increasing Backup Frequency Without Pain

A new CDP server executes a full backup to disk of the all server data, initializing itself with a complete data set. After that, the CDP server will execute frequent incremental backups at designated intervals – every 5 minutes, every hour, whenever a log changes in your email or database system – whenever you want. These new technologies have redefined "incremental backup" to mean only the actual changes in each file – instead of the entire changed file – are backed up. Less data means backups run much faster, and you can backup more frequently because the overhead of each backup is significantly reduced. If you lose a file at 4 pm, you don't have to go back to yesterday's version – you may have a 3 pm version, significantly reducing lost work and lost productivity. You gain dramatic improvement in backup frequency, increasing fidelity without hurting performance or increasing administrator burden.

Another improvement is that the backups are application – and file system-consistent. CDP products are aware of the objects they are backing up – files, email messages, etc. – so both users and administrators are presented with familiar objects during restore. Restore is immediate – no lengthy process is needed to place data back into a useable format.