Comparison of Backup Method Characteristics

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Comparison of Backup Method Characteristics

In order to help you understand how the various backup methods compare to each other and help you make a decision about which one makes the most sense for you, I have enclosed the chart below. It evaluates the various backup methods in several different important general areas. These areas are:

Capacity: How much does the medium store, relative to current average hard disks? Is it likely that an average user's hard disk will fit onto one or maybe two pieces of media for the device/method?
Automatability: How possible is it to fully automate the backup so that it happens without any user intervention at all?
Minimized Startup Cost: How well does the method minimize startup costs for hardware or software?
Minimized Media Cost: Does the method allow additional backups at a reasonable cost?
Expandability: How possible is it to do more backups, or add additional backup media if needed?
Reliability: In general terms--because this varies widely based on the type of device for items such as tape drives--how likely is it that if you have a disaster and need to restore from the backup, it will work for you?
Simplicity / Convenience: How easy is the method to use? Is there any difficulty associated with the method that would tend to discourage doing backups?
Universality: How common is the hardware used for the method? If you needed to use the device in five years, how likely is it that you could find support or additional media for it?
Performance: How fast is the hardware and software used for the method? How much time will it take to do a backup?
Routine Potential: In general, how likely is it that, using this method, someone is likely to settle into a backup routine and stick with it?

Here is the chart; for all items, "High" is better and "Low" is worse (I inverted the cost items so that high had a better meaning and low worse, to keep things consistent, sorry if it is confusing):

Characteristic	Floppy Disks	Tape Drives	Removable Storage Drives	Removable Hard Disks	In-Place Hard Disk Duplication	Network Backup	File Archiving
Capacity	Very Low	High	Low to High	High	High	High	--
Automatability	Low	Low	Low	Low	High	High	High
Minimized Startup Cost	Very High	Low to High	Low to Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	High	Very High
Minimized Media Cost	Low	Moderate to High	Low to Moderate	Moderate	Very Low	Very High	Very High
Expandability	High	High	High	Moderate to High	Low	Very High	High
Reliability	Low	Low to High	Moderate to High	Moderate to High	High	Very High	Very High
Simplicity / Convenience	Moderate	Moderate to High	Moderate to High	Low	Very High	Moderate	High
Universality	Very High	Low to High	Low to Moderate	Moderate	High	High	High
Performance	Very Low	Low to Moderate	Low to High	Very High	Very High	Moderate to High	Very High
Routine Potential	Very Low	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate to High	High	Very High

Note: For a more complete picture on how the various methods stack up, make sure to check out how they cover the various risks to your data as well. Many of the methods that look very attractive based on what you see above actually don't protect against enough of the data risks that you use backups for, to make them truly viable options.

Next: Backup Scheduling and Media Rotation Systems

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