Data Backup in Web Hosting Industry

Sunday, 22 November 2009

The importance of data to any business regardless if it is an online or offline business cannot be disregarded.  Imagine if data stored in a server is lost.  It actually has the capacity to put the entire business to a halt.  It will cost the business a lot of money just to retrieve the lost data if it can be replaced at all.  This ordeal is not an easy task.  It is therefore a wise decision to look for ways to retain this data.  Hence, data back-up should be an essential.

Web Hosting Data Backup

What exactly is data back-up?  It is a process of storing precious data in some form of media or in a server so that you may restore them should you need to. There are many possibilities for data loss.  There may be instances wherein an application gets corrupted or your data file itself is corrupted.  Then there are natural disasters, hardware failure and intentional damage that could cause data loss.  It is during these instances that having back-up data in your remote server becomes vital.

It is important that data is backed-up on a regular basis.  This ensures that the data stored in your remote server is current so that you experience minimal data loss should any of the above instances occur.  More so these days when there are new viruses and worms that come up, you can never be sure when your data is threatened to be lost.

Web hosting accounts usually come with a comprehensive back-up capacity that is used to back-up significant data stored in the server.  It is also important to have a back-up of your user data should you have numerous members in your site.  It is better to have separate back-ups for your users and for you data so that you can restore whichever you need at any given time.

Two kinds of back-up are available.  You have the full back-up and the incremental back-up.  A full back-up is when you back-up all the available data in your site.  Doing this takes a lot of time and space.  An incremental back-up on the other hand, only backs-up data that has changed since the last time that you did a back-up.  Formats such as .tar or .gz are what is usually used.  Making back-ups in the said formats will save you a lot of time and space.

Usually, web hosting services provide a regular back-up scheme which could be done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  The data that is backed-up is stored on a secure server.  Some web hosting services charge for this service and some provide you with the tools necessary for you to take your own back-up so that you can work around a schedule it at time convenient for you.  However, if your site contains very significant data then you can ask your provider to do an hourly back-up for you.  This additional service will entail additional costs.

The process of taking a back-up of vital data and the site is very important in the web hosting industry.  It minimizes downtime and interruption to users because data can be readily restored.