Imagine if your website disappeared. Gone; completely and utterly. All your web pages, images, and files disappeared, and your database vanished. Would you be able to recover it? Where’s your most recent backup? If you have one, how current is it?
Picture this scenario for a moment. Take a deep breath. Now read on.
How likely is this to happen? You’d be surprised, as most people believe their websites are being backed up, at least by their hosting company. Sadly, most web companies do not automatically backup their client’s websites. A lot will offer backups as an add-on, but that $2.95 per month shared hosting package you’re on almost certainly didn’t come with backups. And even if you’re working with a reputable and reliable web design company, they will only have your web files on hand, not including any you may have changed yourself. They almost certainly won’t have the latest copy of your database.
As such, most businesses are ill prepared for a data loss scenario. Fortunately, the solution is quite simple. We recommend a two-step approach:
- Instant backups
These happen directly on your web server. They backup your data (web pages, images, files, database, etc.) in case of ‘overwrite’ or ‘deletion’ situations. They will typically happen instantly or perhaps daily. They will guard against accidentally deleting some files via FTP, or perhaps overwriting some database entries. - Off-site backups
These happen off your web server. They protect against data loss, as well as system configuration and setup (on virtual private or dedicated server setups). They will typically happen less frequently, perhaps weekly or even monthly. They are more geared towards catastophic failures, like a complete hard drive failure, act of nature (e.g. fire, earthquake) at your web company, etc.
The instant backups can typically be configured directly through your web hosting provider. If not, your web design company can certainly set it up for you. These backups guard against the most common problems, typically of a “human error” nature. It’s not enough to simply backup the data, however – you need to ensure you have a well thought out recovery plan. If and when something goes wrong, what is the process to get it restored?
The off-site backups typically cannot be configured by your web hosting provider. Some offer the service, however, through redundant server setups across multiple locations. This can become quite a costly endeavour, however. Backing up your data and system configuration periodically and storing it off-site is a great failsafe. The most common scenario where you’d need an off-site backup is hard drive failure. Even if you have instant backups, chances are that they’re stored on the very same server (and hard drive) that your website is on. If the drive fails, your website and your backup is useless. This can be overcome with a RAID array, but this still doesn’t protect your data from more catastrophic eventualities such as fire, theft, earthquakes, and so on. These backups can be setup and configured by your web design company. Like your instant backups, you’ll also want to have a recovery plan in place to ensure a speedy restoration.
If you have a virtual private or dedicated server setup, you have probably invested a lot of time setting up the software and operating system to your preferences. Losing this setup and having to rebuild from a “base” server installation can be maddening. Off-site backups can be very useful to restore your system configuration, while potentially leaving your data alone.
In summary, every business with a website should have the following in place:
- Instant (or daily) backups of your web files and database.
- Weekly off-site backups of your web files, database, and system configuration.
By having both backup systems in place, you will cover virtually 100% of all probable data loss scenarios. It’s quite simple to setup in most hosting situations, and your web design company should be able to help out.
