Answer Description
Cron is a time-based scheduling service on Linux operating systems. The Windows equivalent is task scheduler. A service and a daemon could also achieve this but will require an entire application to be developed, compiled and installed onto the host OS.
Wikipedia
The software utility cron is a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like computer operating systems Users that set up and maintain software environments use cron to schedule jobs (commands or shell scripts) to run periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals It typically automates system maintenance or administration—though its general-purpose nature makes it useful for things like downloading files from the Internet and downloading email at regular intervals The origin of the name cron is from the Greek word for time, χρόνος (chronos) Cron is most suitable for scheduling repetitive tasks Scheduling one-time tasks can be accomplished using the associated at utility
Cron - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia