Restore vs. recover: Are they the same thing in SaaS data protection? (Spoiler: it’s complicated)
Restore and recover are often used interchangeably, but they shouldn’t be. While they’re closely related (and for good reason), their meanings vary across industries and tech. For SaaS data protection, they can be used to describe different stages of getting your data — and your business — back to an operational state. Understanding the difference in a SaaS data context is useful to building effective backup, restoration, and disaster recovery strategies.
In this blog, we'll look into how we can consider the terms and help frame them with some context — and why planning for both restoration and recovery is essential for true resilience.
Let’s get into some definitions.
Restore: Bringing back data or systems
Data restoration is the act of retrieving data or systems from a backup and returning it to a previously known good state.
You restore when:
- A file has been accidentally deleted.
- A system becomes corrupted and needs to be rolled back.
- A virtual machine or database needs to be reinstated from a snapshot.
Restoration focuses on bringing back what was lost, damaged, or compromised — whether that's a single file or an entire application.
Restore = the process of putting data or systems back into place.
For a deeper technical definition, see TechTarget’s explanation of restore.
Recover: Bringing back business operations
Recovery is about achieving the state where systems, data, and operations are functional again — not just technically restored, but ready for use.
You have recovered when:
- Systems and services are running smoothly.
- Users have full access to the resources they need.
- Operations can resume without disruption.
Recovery often involves multiple steps — validation, reconfiguration, testing — to ensure that everything works as expected after a disruption.
Recover = reaching full operational readiness.