Backup and Recovery Terms

20 plain-English definitions from the IT Glossary of Terms.

Backup and recovery terms describe how organizations keep copies of their data and systems and get them back after a failure, mistake or attack. They cover backup as a service, disaster recovery, recovery objectives, replication, snapshots, immutable storage and backup for SaaS applications. Many teams discover the limits of their backups only when they try to restore. Recovery times, retention periods and what a SaaS provider does and does not back up vary widely between services. Knowing the terms helps you set realistic recovery goals, compare services on what they actually protect, and test that restores work. Use these definitions when reviewing your backup plan or choosing a recovery service, and see our backup and recovery solutions for help selecting a provider.

All glossary terms A–Z

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