Backup and recovery objectives: What is the primary purpose of backup and recovery procedures in data management?

Introduction / Context:
Backups and recovery plans are core controls in information governance, ensuring business continuity after failures, corruption, or inadvertent deletion. Distinguishing the primary purpose from ancillary benefits keeps policies aligned with risk mitigation.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Systems face risks: hardware failure, ransomware, user error, bugs.
• Backups include copies plus procedures to restore serviceable data.
• We must identify the main reason these processes exist.

Concept / Approach:
The primary purpose is restoration after data loss or corruption. Redundancy (multiple copies) is a means to that end, not the end itself. Version history may be a by-product (via snapshots or versioned backups), but the overarching objective is to recover operations to a known-good state within acceptable Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO).

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Business continuity and disaster recovery frameworks define backup success by meeting RPO/RTO after incidents, not by the mere existence of extra copies or versions.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Provide data redundancy: A tactic, not the primary objective.
• Show different versions: Useful for audits or rollbacks, but not the main purpose.
• All of the above: Overbroad; only (a) states the primary purpose.

Common Pitfalls:
Assuming “we have copies” equals resilience; neglecting tested restore procedures; ignoring offsite/immutable backups for ransomware resilience.

Final Answer:
handle the contingency when a file gets corrupted