SOC2 Implementation

Here are some thoughts from ChaGPT:

Option 1: Base backup + WAL archiving

This is the native PostgreSQL way.

How it works:

take a full physical base backup periodically
archive WAL continuously
restore the base backup, then replay WAL up to the target time

That is the normal answer when someone wants “hourly snapshots” in PostgreSQL. You usually do not take a full snapshot every hour; you let WAL fill the gaps.

Option 2: pgBackRest

This is probably the cleanest answer if you want:

scheduled backups
differential/incremental behavior
retention policies
easier restore workflow

pgBackRest explicitly supports:

full
differential
incremental
WAL archiving for PITR

Option 3: storage-level snapshots

If your data directory is on ZFS, LVM, EBS snapshots, etc., you can do volume snapshots. That can work very well, but you still want PostgreSQL-consistent backup strategy and WAL awareness for safe recovery. PostgreSQL’s own documentation centers on base backups + WAL for that reason.