Data restoration is the process of copying backup data from secondary storage and restoring it to its original location or a new location. A data restore returns data that has been lost, stolen or damaged to its original condition or moves data to a new location.
Several circumstances can prompt a data restore. One is human error, where data is accidentally deleted or damaged. Other circumstances include malicious attacks where data is exposed, stolen or infected; power outages; human-made or natural disasters; equipment theft, malfunctions or failures; or firmware corruption.
Data restoration makes a usable copy of the data available to replace lost or damaged data and ensures the data backup is consistent with the state of the data at a specific time before the damage occurred.
Why is data restoration needed?
If a situation occurs that threatens access to and availability of data and databases, a process is needed to take existing, backed-up data and return it to its original form. Almost always, data restore operations occur in response to a data loss. Such events vary in scope. Many different circumstances can lead to data loss, including these:
- Human error. A user might accidentally delete a file or overwrite important data in a file.
- File system corruption. File system corruption can render data files unreadable or break the structure. Corruption can occur in databases, such as those used to store big data or machine learning (ML) data.
- Malicious activities. A disgruntled user might delete or password-lock some sensitive data. Similarly, data loss might occur if data becomes encrypted by ransomware, is infected with a virus, is compromised through phishing, or is unavailable due to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
- Hardware failures. If enough disks within a storage array fail simultaneously, data loss occurs. A disk controller can fail in a way that results in corrupt data being written to a storage array.
- Physical disasters. An organization’s data center might be destroyed by fire or flood.
The best way to avoid losing data in these types of events and ensure business continuity is to create a comprehensive backup strategy designed to create backup copies of data. Backups can be written to a backup device residing on premises, to cloud storage, to tape drives or even an external drive. Regardless of the medium, it’s important to ensure data is backed up. Initiating a restore operation is impossible if there’s no backup data.
Key considerations
- Data restoration is highly time-sensitive, and this is where the recovery point objective (RPO) metric must be addressed.
- Data to be restored should be as current, ideally, as the data lost or damaged.
- When planning and implementing technology to respond to a data loss, data time criticality is crucial. If too much time elapses between when a backup is taken to when the data needs to be restored, the data’s value will likely be diminished.
- Based on the RPO value assigned to specific systems and/or data, backups may need to occur more frequently so mission-critical resources, if lost or damaged, can be restored from backups to almost exactly when the data was backed up.
Data restoration is important for these additional reasons:
- Technology disaster recovery. Loss of a critical system, network service or data can disrupt business operations. Frequent system backups are essential for mission-critical activities. If a major system fails, the disaster recovery plan identifies a secure, up-to-date copy to help the business recover and return to normal.
- Business continuity. Identifying the systems, processes and data tied tightly to mission-critical activities is the first step toward business continuity. If the relevant IT assets, data and databases can be identified, backed-up properly, and restored to the most current state possible, it will help the business recover from a disruption faster.
- Compliance. Data backup and restoration require compliance with a variety of standards and regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
- Confidence that the business will survive. Disaster recovery and business continuity provide assurances that the company can survive a disruptive event. The ability to restore mission-critical systems and data within established timeframes (e.g., the RPO) can increase comfort levels among senior management.
Preparing for a data restore
A key part of the overall data management process, data restoration requires having a system that can yield a good copy of the data via traditional backup, snapshots or continuous data protection (CDP).
When preparing for data restoration, an organization should address these topics:
- Data backup strategy. A person or organization should establish a comprehensive data backup strategy that defines which data needs to be backed up, how frequently backups should occur, and where the backups will reside. For added protection, it’s ideal to combine local backups with off-site or cloud-based backups.
- Backup testing. Test the restore process and tools to ensure a reliable data backup version is available for restoration.
- Define RPO and RTO. The RPO is the longest period that can be tolerated between data losses. The recovery time objective (RTO) is the longest period of acceptable downtime following a data loss incident. Data being restored must be readable, consistent with a chosen time, and include the information needed for RPO and RTO compliance.
- Random checks. Protection copies should be checked randomly at various times to ensure they satisfy RPO and RTO.
- Test data restore procedure. All applications must be checked before an actual data restore to ensure they can use the restored data. That means the software used to format the data must be available, and security certificates, permissions, access control and decryption must be applied correctly.
Common data restoration methods
Where backup data is stored affects the ease with which it can be restored. Some common backup locations include:
- HDD backups. HDD, or hard disk drive, backups provide a quick data restore because it’s easy to locate data on disks, and the systems often live on-site. For this same reason, HDDs are more secure storage devices than off-site tape and cloud backup. However, external hard drive systems cost more than other data backup and restore methods; costs include the power needed to run the required disk and cooling systems. HDD backups are best for data that changes frequently and requires a short recovery time.
- SSD backups. Solid-state disk technology is a popular alternative to HDDs because the storage devices have no moving parts, deliver fast seek times to find and retrieve data, and are non-volatile. Flash drives are convenient, offer large capacity, are still affordable and available in different forms for ease of use.
- Tape backup. Tape backup systems provide high-capacity storage at a lower cost than HDDs. But even with the latest technology, tape still has a longer recovery time than disks or the cloud, and that time expands when data is stored off-site. Tape libraries require ongoing management and testing to ensure data is accessible when needed.
- Cloud backup. Using a cloud backup service requires enterprises to send a copy of data over the corporate network or an internet connection to an off-site server. When it’s time to restore that data, it must traverse the same path, which can take time due to network bandwidth limitations. For this reason, cloud backup and restore are generally favored for noncritical data. With cloud backup, it’s easy to add capacity as data backup needs increase. In addition, costs are lower, particularly when using a cloud provider, because organizations don’t have to buy and maintain backup software and hardware. Using a third-party provider also reduces the IT department’s workload. However, as data volumes grow, cloud backup costs rise.
- Continuous data protection. This backup technique saves every change made to data as it occurs in real time and stores the changes in a storage device. A change log keeps track of all changes and when they were made, so users can restore a system or data to the exact state or point in time needed. While backups typically occur on a schedule based on business requirements, CDP continuously replicates changes in data or systems, making it easier to achieve restorations within RPO values.
New tools are emerging that leverage AI and ML to access and recover backup data more efficiently. Industry analysts acknowledge that, while there are still risk factors to consider, organizations are expected to increasingly adopt AI-powered tools that detect anomalies, predict failures and optimize policies to orchestrate backup and recovery.
Data restore techniques
The approach used to restore data depends on several considerations, such as the following:
- What information was lost or damaged.
- How much data was affected.
- How the incident happened.
- The software used to create the data backup.
- The backup target media.
Some backup software lets users restore lost files themselves. Data recovery software and services can retrieve accidentally deleted files that aren’t backed up from the hard drive.
More complicated data loss or damage requires IT to restore backup files from disk, tape or other backup media using various techniques, such as the following:
- Instant recovery. Also known as recovery in place, it redirects a user’s workload to a backup server, eliminating the recovery window. Users get almost immediate access to a snapshot restore point of their workload, where they can work while IT manages the full recovery and data restore in the background. Once that process is complete, the user’s workload is redirected back to the original virtual machine.
- Replication. This provides even faster, near-instant access to data; however, data backup with integrated replication often lacks a product that provides historical recovery and isn’t a true backup capability.
- CDP. It occurs when data is backed up using snapshots taken whenever data changes. This accommodates rollback to any point in time. However, CDP comes at a price in the load on a system’s central processing unit and significant storage needs.
- Near-CDP. It is when snapshots of changed data are taken at set intervals and changes are consolidated over a longer period. This approach reduces the storage required to accommodate backed-up data compared with full-fledged CDP.
- Traditional backup. This is when data is stored on HDDs, SSDs or magnetic tape locally or at a remote location. Traditional backup is most useful when a major hardware or site disaster occurs. It lacks the scalability and efficiency of other methods, but it’s a better long-term approach for data retention and restoration.
Mobile backup and restore
Backing up and restoring mobile data from smartphones, tablets and laptops poses specific challenges. Traditional backup software often assumes that devices being backed up have a permanent location, a consistently good connection to the corporate network and adequate bandwidth. But mobile devices frequently lack these capabilities.
Enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) services protect data on mobile devices by copying files to the cloud or on-premises storage. EFSS lets users access these files on other desktop and mobile devices, but it’s not a true backup and doesn’t allow for the rollback of data to a particular time should the device fail, if the device is lost or stolen, or if data on it is damaged or destroyed.
Most Android devices and all Apple iOS devices have native, image-based backup, but that leaves the responsibility for backing up these devices with users. An endpoint backup product that supports mobile devices and incorporates file sync and sharing is one way to handle this.
As with all enterprise data backup and data restore procedures, the key to smooth data restoration on mobile devices is to have a consistent, tested backup process and data recovery tools so data can be restored quickly and easily.
Typical scenarios where mobile backups matter include the following:
- When a device is replaced. Mobile backups make it easy to transfer backed-up data from an old device to a new one.
- When device data is lost or stolen. In case of accidental data loss or deletion, it can be restored back to the latest backup.
- When a device is reset. If a device is reset to a factory install, the data that’s backed up can be used to restore the device to its previous state.
- When a device is infected with malware and viruses. After the infection is removed, the device can be restored to the original settings with the latest backup.
Data restore vendors and products
Numerous backup and data recovery service vendors offer products to back up, recover and restore an organization’s data. These products vary widely in price, scope and capabilities. Some available products include the following:
Preparation is vital to prevent data loss and resume operations quickly and efficiently after a natural disaster. Learn how to perform critical backups and prevent data loss.