Differential Backups vs Snapshot Backups
Developers should learn differential backups when working with systems requiring regular data protection, such as databases, application servers, or critical infrastructure, to minimize downtime and data loss 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.
Differential Backups
Developers should learn differential backups when working with systems requiring regular data protection, such as databases, application servers, or critical infrastructure, to minimize downtime and data loss
Differential Backups
Nice PickDevelopers should learn differential backups when working with systems requiring regular data protection, such as databases, application servers, or critical infrastructure, to minimize downtime and data loss
Pros
- +Use cases include backing up SQL Server databases, virtual machine snapshots, or large file repositories where restoring from a full backup plus the latest differential is faster than from multiple incremental backups
- +Related to: full-backups, incremental-backups
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. Differential Backups is a methodology while Snapshot Backups is a concept. We picked Differential Backups based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.
Based on overall popularity. Differential Backups is more widely used, but Snapshot Backups excels in its own space.
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