Continuous Data Protection vs Snapshot Backups

Developers should learn and use CDP when building or maintaining systems that require minimal data loss and high recovery point objectives (RPO), such as financial applications, healthcare databases, or e-commerce platforms meets developers should learn and use snapshot backups when working with critical data in production environments, such as databases, virtual machines, or cloud storage, to enable quick recovery from data corruption, accidental deletions, or ransomware attacks. Here's our take.

Continuous Data Protection

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and use CDP when building or maintaining systems that require minimal data loss and high recovery point objectives (RPO), such as financial applications, healthcare databases, or e-commerce platforms

Pros

• It is particularly valuable in environments with frequent data updates, as it allows for precise rollback to specific moments, reducing downtime and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations
• Related to: disaster-recovery, data-backup

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Snapshot Backups

Developers should learn and use snapshot backups when working with critical data in production environments, such as databases, virtual machines, or cloud storage, to enable quick recovery from data corruption, accidental deletions, or ransomware attacks

Pros

• They are particularly valuable in DevOps and CI/CD pipelines for creating consistent application states before deployments or for cloning environments for testing without affecting live systems
• Related to: backup-strategies, disaster-recovery

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Continuous Data Protection is a methodology while Snapshot Backups is a concept. We picked Continuous Data Protection based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Continuous Data Protection wins

Based on overall popularity. Continuous Data Protection is more widely used, but Snapshot Backups excels in its own space.