Database Backup vs Replication: What’s the Difference?

Introduction

If you are trying to look for a good solution to protect your data, for example, database data, you may have heard of database backup and replication. They are both effective data protection ways.

You may know the difference between backup and copy, but do you know what’s the difference between database backup vs replication?

To answer this question, you may need to learn the difference between backup and replication first.

What is backup

Backup is the most common way to protect large sets of static data for the long term. A Backup is an independent copy of all specified data created by native or third-party software. You can store it on various types of media, locally or offsite, according to the 3-2-1 backup rule, so that in the event of data loss, it can be restored to exactly the same state as when it was backed up.

Backup is different from copy because backup can literally copy everything, but copy and paste cannot.

Advantages

• Easy to operate.
• Low cost.
• Backup process can be automated.
• Highly isolated and secure.

Disadvantages

• There will be some lagging.
• Long backup and restore time.
• Cannot guarantee business continuity.

What is replication

Replication is one of the important measures for disaster recovery. Replication is the process of continually copying and moving current data from one site to another, so that businesses can quickly perform failover in the event of disaster. There are 2 main types, synchronous replication and asynchronous replication.

Synchronous replication is continuous and real-time. The new data on the primary site will be replicated to another site and override the old data immediately, so that there is no downtime between the point of saving and the redundancy being updated.

However, during asynchronous replication your data will be saved to your primary storage first with a slight delay, before being copied to another site.

Advantages

• Short recovery time.
• Multiple recovery points.
• Maintains business continuity.

Disadvantages

• High cost.
• Complex to operate.
• Malware can spread to the replicated data.

Database backup vs replication: What’s the difference?

The main difference between backup and replication is the intended use. Backup focuses on restoring data to a specific point in time, while replication focuses on business continuity.

It remains true when it comes to database. With the backup process, what you are creating are point-in-time copies of the database. They are kind of like snapshots, but independent of the original database.

But with replication, what you are doing is building another identical site and constantly copying new changes to that site, so that the databases on both 2 sites are always consistent.

Therefore, their difference can be summarized in 4 points:

• Data updates: Data saved by replication is newer than by backup. Backups are not performed all the time, so the most recent backup may be hours or even days old. Replication, on the other hand, is frequently preformed in minutes, thus minimizes the amount of data lost.
• Recovery time: Recovery time required for replication is shorter than that required for backup. Restoring complete data from a backup can take a long time and with downtime. However, the recovery time for replication can be measured in minutes, providing uninterrupted operations of mission-critical and customer-facing applications after a disaster.
• Cost: The cost of backup is lower than replication. Backup, even offsite, requires only a storage device and space to place the device, whereas replication requires investment and maintenance of another site that is ready to be put into service.
• Data security: Backup is more secure than replication. As data is replicated throughout the system, malware can also be spread to another site via replication. And without adequate backups, it may not be possible to restore to a state free of malware. But with backup you are creating completely isolated copies of the data at a point in time and are therefore safe.

Database backup vs replication: How to choose?

Read this far, you’ve already known what is backup and replication, and the difference between database backup and replication. But to choose between database backup and replication, you may still need to define your needs in addition to understanding both types of data protection measures.

• If you are an individual user or a small-medium sized business with insufficient budget, you just need a data protection measure and does not require a high level of business continuity, then backup may be more appropriate for you.
• If you are a medium-large sized enterprise with a large budget, you have high business continuity requirements, low tolerance for data loss, and a private cloud, then you may choose replication to better protect your data.

Besides that, don't forget that many large enterprises now choose a combination of backup and replication to protect their data.

One effective database backup software to protect SQL Server databases

There are many ways to auto backup SQL Server databases. However, if you have a lot of databases to manage, then native methods are definitely not as efficient as backup software.

Here I recommend you a professional backup software AOMEI Centralized Backupper Database Edition. It allows you to centrally control all laptops, workstations, and servers within LAN from a single computer, and remotely back up multiple SQL Server databases on other computers.

In addition, you can also monitor the network speed and available disk space of these computers to avoid failures.

Next, I will demonstrate how to create a SQL Server backup task, you can click the following button to start a 30-day free trial.

To properly use AOMEI Centralized Backupper, especially if you want to manage multiple computers within LAN, you need to download a backup agent and request control over these computers first.

Navigate to Computers and click Install client program to download it on client computers manually or remotely.

For those computers which download client program manually, please find them in Computers > Uncontrolled Computers, and click Request Control.

A request window will pop up on these computers, once you are authorized, you can start backup and restore at any time without repeat this step.

How to remotely backup multiple SQL databases

1. Click Tasks > New Task and select SQL Server Backup to create a new backup task. There are 3 steps you need to follow.

2. Step 1, click Add Computers to add the controlled client computer you want to back up with.

3. Step 2, click Add, you can select single or multiple SQL instances and databases to back up. Click OK to the next step.

4. Step 3, select a location as the destination path. You can click Add Storage to add a share or NAS path as a storage end.

Besides, click Settings you can enable encryption, email notification, and compression for backups.

To further save the space occupied by excessive backups, it provides 2 compression levels, the higher the compression level you choose, the smaller the backup file will be.

5. Click Schedule next to Settings, you can select to run this task Once, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. Each option you can select specific days and start time. And you can also change it after.

Click Advanced you can choose to perform Full or Differential Backup.

6. After all these settings, you can click Start Backup to select Only create the task, or Create and execute the task. Once created, the tasks will be listed in Tasks separately for further edit or restore.

Summary

It is not easy to choose the most suitable way to protect important business data, especially for enterprises. You may need to compare all solutions according to your own needs.

In this article, I introduced what is backup and replication, and took the example of databases, to explain what’s the difference between database backup vs replication. Hope it could help you.

And if you want a comprehensive backup tool, AOMEI Centralized Backupper can be very handy with the features of File-based Backup, System Backup, Disk Backup, Partition Backup, SQL Server Backup, and Sync.