Total amount of data to back up
The total amount of data to back up depends on the size of the files for each client in the policy. The total amount of data also depends on whether the backup is a full backup or an incremental backup.
The implications are as follows:
Full backups involve all the data. Therefore, a full backup usually takes longer than an incremental backup.
Differential incremental backups include only the data that changed since the last full or incremental backup.
Cumulative incremental backups include all the data that changed since the last full backup.
For incremental backups, the amount of data depends on the frequency with which files change. If a large number of files change frequently, incremental backups are larger.