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What is the difference between backup and archiving?
A backup is used to get a system running again or to recover a recent file. Archiving is used to keep a document, often for years, in the state in which it was frozen, for business, accounting or legal reasons. The two have neither the same duration nor the same rules.
Key points
- Backup: days to a few months of history, to get back to work.
- Archiving: years, for specific documents that no one must be able to modify.
- Legal retention periods (accounting, tax and payroll records) depend on Mauritian legislation: have them confirmed by your accountant.
- The Data Protection Act 2017 prohibits keeping everything “just in case”: the retention period follows the purpose.
- An old server backup is not an archive you can use during an inspection.
Two questions, two time frames
| Operational backup | Archiving | |
|---|---|---|
| Question | Can I work again tomorrow? | Can I find this document in five or ten years, unaltered? |
| Content | Systems, databases, live files, email | Frozen documents: invoices, contracts, files, logs |
| Typical duration | Days to a few months | Years, sometimes set by law |
| Modification | The oldest restore points are overwritten when the volume is full | Modification and deletion are prevented for the chosen period |
| Restore | Frequent, sometimes of a single file | Rare, for an inspection, a dispute or an audit |
Mixing the two in the same space leads to two failures. Operational backup becomes too expensive if you keep ten years of daily backups. The archive becomes useless if it runs on the same cycle as the nightly backups and gets purged.
The ANSSI, France’s national cybersecurity agency, also excludes legal archiving, which requires guaranteeing the authenticity of data, from its backup guide: they are two separate subjects.
An archive is not an old backup
A server backup dated 2019 contains an operating system, passwords from that time and temporary files. It is bulky, hard to read back, and it carries personal data whose retention the Data Protection Act 2017 requires you to limit. An archive of time-stamped, unmodifiable PDF invoices answers a tax audit. The 2019 backup does not.
Archiving with evidential value adds integrity: no one, not even an administrator, must be able to rewrite the document during the retention period. That is the role of write-once storage (WORM) or an immutable backup.
The three stages of personal data
The life cycle of personal data is generally described in three phases:
- Active database: the data is used for day-to-day processing and remains accessible to the teams concerned.
- Intermediate archiving: the data no longer serves its original purpose but must be kept for a legal obligation or possible litigation. Access is restricted to authorised persons, with physical or logical separation.
- Permanent archiving or deletion: only certain information is kept indefinitely, for its historical value; the rest is deleted.
Operational backup covers the active database. Intermediate archiving belongs in a separate space, with its own retention period.
What the law says: periods to check
In Mauritius, the legal retention period for accounting and tax records depends on the applicable legislation (Income Tax Act 1995, section 153; Companies Act): have it confirmed by your accountant. These periods apply to the document, not to the number of nightly backups, and do not replace advice tailored to your sector.
| Document | Retention period | Starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting books and supporting documents (Companies Act) | Legal period to be confirmed with your accountant | According to the applicable law |
| Tax documents (Income Tax Act 1995, section 153; VAT) | Legal period to be confirmed with your accountant | According to the applicable law |
| Contracts and business correspondence | According to limitation periods, to be checked with your adviser | Depending on the document |
| Copies of payslips (employer) | According to Mauritian labour law, to be checked | — |
| Patient records in a healthcare facility | Sector-specific rules, to be checked with the competent health authority | According to the applicable rule |
Health records are subject to sector-specific rules: check them with the competent health authority.
For personal data, the Data Protection Act 2017 (section 27) requires data to be destroyed as soon as the purpose has been fulfilled. “Keeping everything just in case” is not a legal basis: personal data cannot be kept indefinitely.
How to decide
- List the documents with evidential value and their retention periods.
- Take them out of the daily backup cycle and place them on immutable, encrypted storage whose duration matches the obligation.
- Separately, keep a short history (days, weeks, a few months) for failures and errors.
- Plan how to read the archive in ten years: file format, software, encryption key. An unreadable archive is not an archive.
At WeDoBack
The backup offer (SMART or INTEGRAL) provides the operational history: retention is set according to the subscribed volume. The IMMUTABLE offer is WORM storage: data can be neither modified nor deleted for the chosen period, up to ten years. The public price is €20 excl. VAT per 100 GB block per month, plus one agent per machine. Once the period ends, protection is renewed with a new subscription. The encryption key stays with the client: it must be kept for as long as the archive.
Frequently asked questions
Do my old backups count as accounting archives?
In practice, no. An inspector expects readable, retrievable documents, not a server image that would have to be restored with old software. Archiving isolates the relevant documents, in a readable format, on a medium that prevents their modification.
How long should an invoice be kept?
The legal retention period for accounting and tax records, including invoices, depends on Mauritian legislation (Income Tax Act 1995, section 153; Companies Act): have it confirmed by your accountant. These periods apply to the document, not to the daily backup of the server that contains it.
Can you archive in the same solution as your backup?
Yes, provided the archive space has its own retention period, separate from the backup rotation cycle, and is protected against modification and deletion. Otherwise, the archive ends up purged along with the old backups.
Further reading
Sources
Documents consulted in October 2026.
- Income Tax Act 1995 (consolidated version) — Mauritius Revenue Authority
- Data Protection Act 2017 — Data Protection Office (Mauritius)
- Introductory Guide to the Data Protection Act 2017 — Data Protection Office (Mauritius)
- Backing up information systems – The fundamentals (ANSSI-BP-100, v1.1, 27 November 2025) — ANSSI (France’s national cybersecurity agency)
- IMMUTABLE offer: WORM storage and prices — WeDoBack
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