{"id":111254,"date":"2024-06-04T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=111254"},"modified":"2025-12-12T14:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:20:09","slug":"do-i-need-a-continuous-backup-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-continuous-backup-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I Need a Continuous Backup Solution?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Most IT administrators and businesses know that you need to employ a 3-2-1 backup solution<\/a> to meet minimum backup durability requirements, though many folks are of the opinion that the 3-2-1 methodology is just table stakes these days. Once you get into the variety of ways you can ensure reliable, robust backups, you learn about strategies like 3-2-1-1-0<\/a>, bare metal recovery,<\/a> cyber resilience<\/a>, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Which method your business ultimately ascribes to depends on your risk tolerance\u2014but no business wants to experience the costs associated with extended downtime. In a world where the threat of ransomware<\/a> is not an \u201cif\u201d, but a \u201cwhen,\u201d and disaster recovery is front-of-mind for businesses of all sizes, getting granular with your backup and recovery options is key. That brings us to today\u2019s topic: continuous backup solutions, aka continuous data protection (CDP).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What Is Continuous Data Protection (CDP)?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A continuous data protection<\/a> solution is an automated data backup method that keeps track of changes to your files and backs them up constantly. This is different from traditional backups that copy your data at set intervals<\/a>. While you can set the interval that you\u2019d want to have your data backup (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly), you\u2019d still be relying on a systemic approach, and would have data loss exposure correlating to the duration you set. What if you had a day of particularly high volume of new data? What if you\u2019re dealing with sensitive customer information that your business needs to show an accurate audit trail for?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Quick Refresher: The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy<\/h4>\r\n

The 3-2-1 backup solution calls for three copies of your data, to be stored on two different media types, with one copy off-site (and preferably geographically separate from your primary data storage region).<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Continuous backup solutions work by tracking every change to your data in real time, then they asynchronously create a second copy of those changes. Compare this with traditional backups, where data is written to a destination, then a copy (often, a snapshot) of the data is made to be distributed to other backup locations. With a continuous backup solution, you can reduce your recovery point objective (RPO)\u2014that is, the point in time from which you can recover your data\u2014to near zero. And, if you store your continuous backups in more accessible storage tiers, you can reduce your recovery time objective (RTO) as well.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Here are some of the key qualities of a continuous backup solution:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n