What is the purpose of a backup?

The primary purpose of a backup is to create a copy of data that can be restored in case of loss or damage. Backups are essential for protecting important information against risks such as accidental deletion, hardware failure, data corruption, or malicious attacks like ransomware. By having a copy of data stored separately, individuals and organizations can recover their systems and information with minimal disruption when data loss occurs.

While archiving data for future use is important, it serves a different purpose compared to backups, which focus specifically on data recovery. Compressing files is useful for accommodating storage needs or simplifying sharing, but it does not serve as a protective measure against data loss. Similarly, deleting redundant data can help in managing storage, but it does not provide the safeguard that backups offer for recovering lost or damaged information. Thus, the creation of a copy for restoration is the central role of backups.