Local backup, refers to the process of backing up your system, applications, and data to a local device, such as tape, disk, hard disk, flash drive, CD, external hard drive, or other media that is located on-site, close to the data source. While it is recommended that an organization perform a local backup, you will need a second backup on a different device (ideally stored off-site) to ensure your data is protected.
A local backup is any backup where the storage medium is kept close at hand. Typically, the storage medium is plugged in directly to the source computer being backed up or is connected through a local area network to the source being backed up.
Examples of Local Backups:
- Internal hard drive
- External hard drive (desktop or portable)
- Optical drives like CDs, DVDs and Blue Ray discs
- Solid state drives like USB Thumb drives or Flash Drives
- Backup to a shared folder on another computer over the network
- Magnetic tape drives
Advantages
► Offers good protection from hard drive failures, virus attacks, accidental deletes.
► Very fast backup and very fast restore.
► Storage cost can be very cheap when the right storage medium is used like external hard drives
► Data transfer cost to the storage medium can be negligible or very cheap
► Since the backups are stored close by, they are very conveniently obtained whenever needed for backups and restore.
Disadvantages
► Since the backup is stored close by to the source, it does not offer good protections against theft, fire, flood, earthquakes and other natural disasters. When the source is damaged by any of these circumstances, there’s a good chance the backup will be also damaged.
