Gervonta Errol
In the world of data management, ensuring the safety and availability of your data is paramount. Two commonly used strategies for achieving this are snapshots and backups. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they serve distinct purposes in data protection and recovery. Understanding the differences between snapshots and backups is crucial for making informed decisions about how to safeguard your data.
Source: https://cyberpanel.net/blog/snapshot-vs-backup/
A snapshot is essentially a point-in-time copy of your data. It captures the state of your data at a specific moment, providing a read-only view of your files and system configuration as they existed at that instant.
Snapshots are typically fast to create because they don't involve copying all the data. Instead, they record the differences (changes) since the previous snapshot. This makes them efficient for capturing frequent data changes.
Snapshots take up less storage space compared to full backups because they only store the differences. This makes them a practical solution for environments where storage space is a concern.
Snapshots are not intended for long-term data retention. They are best suited for short-term recovery needs. Depending on your system's configuration, they may last for a few hours, days, or even weeks.
Snapshots may not guarantee application-consistent copies of data. In other words, if an application was in the middle of a transaction when the snapshot was taken, it might result in inconsistent data.
Snapshots are quickly available for recovery, making them suitable for rapid data restoration.
Backups, on the other hand, involve creating a complete copy of your data at a specific point in time. Unlike snapshots, backups are comprehensive and typically come with the following characteristics
