If you’re a developer, agency, or anyone who owns a business that relies on data storage; you are probably always looking for ways to increase your storage efficiency.
Some of us seek perfection in all areas of our business, but one thing we far too often ignore is backing up our data and being prepared for data loss.
What’s mind-blowing is that despite how important business data is, it seems that some of us continue to neglect its effective management.
There are several incidents which illustrate this, where web-hosts have lost their clients’ data including backups, were targeted by cyber-attacks affecting all their customers’ websites, or experienced hardware failures leaving dozens of businesses down for hours.
We simply don’t imagine that our business or clients’ websites and databases will just evaporate overnight. But if you are not prepared, then the loss can be permanent and there is no going back when it is too late.
According to TechRadar, at least 65% of businesses have lost their data due to human, hardware or software error. And, with the rise of business reliance on the cloud, more data loss opportunities are created every day.
So today, I will focus on 4 ways an online backup service can save you from losing your precious data when things go wrong.
By data, I mean cloud server files, websites hosted on a cloud server, or databases powering your eCommerce website, web and mobile applications.
Let’s get started…
Bonus: Automate backups for all of your web assets with SimpleBackups. Get a 14-day trial here.
1. Minimize the cost and reduce the risk
“Backups are crucial, down-time is costly, data loss is priceless.”
Crucial because without them, your business is taking a huge risk of losing its data without ever recovering it. So you must continuously have backups of everything you run for yourself or your clients. This allows you to recover your data when things go wrong and be back in business.
When you lose data, your applications or websites do not function properly. The downtime that results from data loss becomes costly as you realize that it leads to lost sales, lost leads or even lost customers if you no longer have their saved data, consequently preventing them from using your service as they were before.
Sometimes it’s priceless to revert back to an earlier version of the database or restore deleted files but the problem is that you don’t realize it until it’s already too late.
2. Regain your lost time
Do you want to spend your time setting up backups manually and dealing with errors? Certainly not.
Are you comfortable enough to write your own backup scripts and keep maintaining them? Maybe, but there’s a catch.
The problem with writing your own custom scripts is that there are many failure points and a lot of components of these scripts can go wrong.
For example, forgetting to update your database credentials in your script after you change them, your server running out of disk space, or cloud storage failing to receive your backup, are just some of the possible reasons that will break your custom backup scripts. Your backups won’t be taken, and you won’t be notified thinking that everything is going well until one day you need your backups.
I’m sure you want to recover your lost time as much as possible and worry less about the health of your data. This is where an online backup service like SimpleBackups can help you save a tremendous amount of time by taking care of the whole backup process and only notifying you when things go wrong.
Set the backup schedule you desire, don’t just accept your web host’s schedule.
With several ways to be notified, you will know for sure when things go wrong.
3. Break-free of deteriorating infrastructure
Break-free of web hosts when you need to, simply said, OWN your own backups.
Have you ever been in a situation where you tried to migrate from one cloud hosting platform to another and found out that it’s too painful and time-consuming because your web host has your backups?
What’s worse is that many web hosts only allow you to restore your backups on their platform, meaning that it’s impossible to just take your own data and move away or deploy it somewhere else.
This may not be an issue as long as you are comfortable using this web host for… ever. But the competition between web hosts and cloud platforms has become fierce and their offering is dynamic, with more options, different prices, and service level agreements. You will eventually change platforms when you are given a higher quality and better value for the same price.
Online backup services like SimpleBackups allow you to own your backups and maintain them on your own storage, offering you plenty of options. This is very useful because you become infrastructure-independent and can easily switch to different platforms whenever you need to without feeling that you are locked in.
Choose your own storage to store your backups off-site.
4. Consolidate your backups in one place
Centralize all your backups, save time and know where to find them.
If you are relying on different ways and methods to back up your applications and websites that range from WordPress plugins to web host backups, to custom backup scripts or server snapshots, then it’s time to rethink your approach.
Using an online backup service will help you save time setting up backups, unify the process and steps of taking backups across all your different web applications and platforms, and help you avoid having to set up backups for every single project.
All your backups in one place.
Everything you need for each backup.
Summary
SimpleBackups makes it a breeze to schedule automated backups of all your website files and databases in one simple dashboard. You will get alerts if any of your backups fail and you can store your backups on different cloud storage options like AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces, Dropbox, and more. Allowing you to truly own your backups and restore them on any platform when you need to.
SimpleBackups was created by developers who have faced these pains themselves over the years, with a particular goal in mind:
Encouraging developers and web development agencies to create automated backups for all their websites’ files and databases by converting the process of setting up backups into an effortless habit, without any resistance or procrastination.
Ready to start protecting your data and owning your backups? Head over to simplebackups.io and create a free account.
Guest author: Islam Essam is the co-founder of SimpleBackups. He specializes in backend-development and DevOps, a big fan of new technologies, FinTech, and a full-time traveler.