The term "Differential Backup" refers to a backup method in which all data that has changed or been added since the last full backup is saved. Unlike incremental backups, differential backups always store the difference relative to the most recent full backup—not just the changes since the last backup. Differential backups offer a balance between storage efficiency and recovery speed: to restore data, only the last full backup and the most recent differential backup are required.
Automated differential backup creation: Scheduled backups of changed data based on the last full backup.
Backup scheduling: Configurable intervals for full and differential backups.
Backup management and versioning: Managing multiple backup generations with clear references to their respective full backups.
Recovery functions: Fast recovery by combining the full and the latest differential backup.
Storage optimization: Identifying and managing redundant data to reduce storage consumption.
Compression and encryption: Protecting and optimizing backed-up data.
Notifications and logs: Informing users about successful or failed backup operations.
A mid-sized company performs a full backup on Sundays and a differential backup every day to ensure fast recovery if needed.
An IT service provider uses differential backups on client systems to save storage while ensuring fast data restoration.
A hospital backs up only patient data that has changed since the last weekend's full backup.
A backup system automatically detects which files have changed since the last full backup and includes only those in the differential backup.