The term
hot backup describes backup of data performed while software accessing that data is running, compared to traditional or cold backup which requires systems to be taken offline before having data backed up.
The advantages of performing a hot backup is that data and applications can be actively accessible to users, which may be a critical consideration for organizations whose core business tasks rely on round-the-clock access to information services. This eliminates the need for a downtime backup window that may disrupt business and cost revenue both directly and indirectly. Applications built around a database source may have thousands of records being accessed at any given time by multiple users, so a hot backup is ideal for such applications.
The disadvantage of a hot backup is that data written to the system before the backup process is complete may not be reflected in the recovery point. However, due to the dynamic nature of a hot backup, substantially more current data is stored for backup than in a cold backup performed at discrete recovery points.
Features like hot backup,
continuous data protection and redundant storage are critical for organizations with extremely low fault tolerance. Backup service providers such as a CRC DataProtection provide hot backup as one feature of a backup system designed for uninterrupted backup of enterprise business data.
