Replication is intended to create a 1:1 copy of the data. If data is removed from the primary system, replication will ensure it's removed from the replica. A

Replication is intended to create a 1:1 copy of the data. If data is removed from the primary system, replication will ensure it's removed from the replica. A backup can be a 1:1 copy but it should be set up such that something going wrong with the primary (e.g. cryptolocker malware), can't affect it (since "something went wrong with the primary" is what the backup is intended to resolve). To do that you could take the backup offline or use features like filesystem snapshots to ensure that changes can be rolled back.