File Archiving Software Versus Backup: Know the Difference

Is there a difference between file archiving software and file backup software? Yes, and no. There’s a subtle difference that can have a huge impact if your intention is to use it as disaster recovery software.

When people think of traditional backup, they think of devices like tape, or drive imaging. By contrast, archiving consists of versioned backups of files to server storage or to the cloud in blob storage.

So, we consider archiving a form of backup but not traditional backup.

The benefit of archiving is it can be a complement to existing physical backups. Archiving provides a real-time backup that closes gaps in the backup window. Let’s explain:

How Does File Archiving Software Differ From Backup?

A traditional backup method runs on a schedule—once a day, once an hour, or something similar. That schedule creates gaps in your backups. So if you're backing up your file shares once an hour, and a user creates a document and then messes it up 15 to 30 minutes later, you're not going to have a backup of that file. The file update never makes it to the scheduled tape or image backup time.

With true file archiving software, you can update your files continuously, in real-time. As file changes are made, you're immediately getting versioned copies of them stored in the archive as a backup. And that covers those spans of time where your tape is not backing things up.

Tape backup and drive imaging can be used to back up your entire operating system, including all the files. True archiving is there just to protect the file data. That’s the distinction. Archiving is protecting your file data, like Word documents and all other types of critical data. And protecting it in a real-time way, making it act as file backup software.

In that sense, it can be used as disaster recovery software alongside traditional backup methods or independently to back up all your files. Centralized archiving is especially important for organizations with remote offices. Backups may not be done in field offices, and there may not be local IT staff to carry out such tasks.

Prevent Data Gaps With File Archiving Software

When using file archiving software, it’s important that users understand and set interval rules that best work for them. An interval is a time period, and intervals determine the number of file versions to retain in different file periods.

Archive rules are very flexible. They can be set in many ways, depending on user needs. Data archiving will evenly spread versions over a set interval. This prevents file history gaps. For example, an interval set to keep seven versions in a week will space those versions out over the specified time. If you save more than seven versions in that time, the old versions will carry over to the next interval. When a file version is old enough to be outside set archive intervals, it's removed from the archive.

Your managed file transfer (MFT) tool should include file archiving as SureSync MFT does. SureSync allows data to be copied from remote sites to a central file server or servers. With SureSync, you can: 

• Decrease IT staff costs for remote offices
• End the need for tape backup in remote offices
• Provide fast disaster recovery

You can test SureSync out for yourself with a free demo.