Backup Isolation

Backup Isolation is the logical or physical separation of backup copies from the productive IT environment. The aim is to prevent an error, a compromised administrator account or a cyberattack from accessing production data and backups at the same time. Isolation can be implemented through separate accounts, networks, identities, administrative domains or external storage environments.

The term must be distinguished from immutability: an isolated backup is not automatically immutable, and an immutable backup can nevertheless lie within the same administrative failure domain. Multi-layered concepts that combine isolation, restricted permissions and tamper-proof retention are therefore particularly effective. Such measures support robust IT Security.

Backup isolation is relevant above all for resilient Business Continuity Management, because an independent backup is meant to enable the restart even if productive systems or credentials have been compromised.