Heads Above the Rest

On 14/04/2012 00:59 by Admin

Data backup is where you save your data to your computer, another server, a hardened dedicated storage facility or even a bank vault using a storage medium that you can use to restore them when you need to. Anything can and will happen, your application breaks! Maybe you will get hacked or have a virus! Floods, hurricanes, earthquakes could cause you to lose your data. No matter what the cause, a good current backup will keep your business going by restoring your data.

Your data must be backed up on a regular basis so you lose as little as possible in the case of a problem. In the computer industry, it is a MUST to backup your data, both on and off site! With all the viruses, worms and hackers – you wont know in advance when you need the backup or why so taking good regular backups has become mandatory!

All of Sasquatch Hosting’s accounts come with a solid reliable backup scheme for your safety. If you have a reseller site that has many users, it is mandatory that you backup your users data as well as your own. Under such situations it is better to backup the site data and the users’ data separately so that you can restore which ever you want.

A backup can be incremental or full backup. Full backup is to take a backup of all the data available in the site, whereas the incremental backup is to take a backup of the data that has changed since the last backup. It takes a lot of time and space to take a full backup of your site. Backup is taken usually in the tar format or the .gz format. Taking backups in these formats saves a lot of space and time.

Most web hosting services provides a backup plan which could be on a   monthly, weekly, or daily basis. The data that is backed up is stored on a secure server, preferably in a different physical location. Some providers will charge you for backup services that they provide. Some hosting providers provide you the necessary tools to take a backup so that you can schedule backups on your own. If your site has critical data then hourly backup can also be a great idea. This will usually result in an extra charge from your  hosting provider.

Also depending on how critical the application is, please keep multiple backups. Do NOT trust your businesses life and future to your hosting company. Anything from disgruntles workers to hacks can destroy their backups too! Always keep a copy in a safe place! I suggest 3 backups is the minimum needed for safety. One should be your web host -- if they take backups. Another should be to a cloud server using backup software. The third and last should be to your computer!

I hope you now understand why having a current backup of both your site and the data it contains is mandatory in this day and age. This way no matter what happens your site can be restored as fast as possible.