Back up your website data--an overlooked and underused necessity.As we all know, computers tend to die from time to time. For every business that is using the web as a revenue-generating channel, its data is an important company asset. The loss of a customer database could be devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. to a business, leading to unfulfilled orders, dissatisfied dis·sat·is·fied adj. Feeling or exhibiting a lack of contentment or satisfaction. dis·sat  is·fied customers, and the loss of touch with thousands of clients.
Depending on one computer alone, death-prone machines that they are, is a formula for disaster. Since it is pretty self-evident that preventing the loss of all of a business's orders and customer information is an important task, why is that backup solutions are among the lowest priorities of most businesses shopping for web hosting Making a Web site available on the Internet. Many ISPs host a few personal Web pages for an individual at no additional cost above the monthly service fee, but the address is subordinate to the ISP; for example, www.friendlyisp.com/pat_smith. ? More than life insurance Backups could be compared to life insurance policies for your web operation, but they are really something more. Quality backups are like a life insurance plan that would resurrect you if you passed away, rather than simply grant your loved ones loved ones npl → seres mpl queridos loved ones npl → proches mpl et amis chers loved ones love npl some monetary assistance. Like a web hosting plan, backup solutions should be chosen appropriately with what the comany is doing on the web. Businesses running small brochure websites will need the most modest sort of backups; however, businesses collecting data from customers and prospects through the web need very reliable backup solutions. The acid test for a backup plan is whether it provides the means to restore your site to a fully operational condition within one hour after a server crash. A modest backup suitable for a brochure-style site can consist of simply keeping a spare copy of all of the files on a separate computer. Sites that are dynamically interacting with visitors and constantly writing new information to databases cannot rely on simply keeping spare copies of their files. Those copied files are quickly outdated out·dat·ed adj. Out-of-date; old-fashioned. outdated Adjective old-fashioned or obsolete Adj. 1. . Databases that are accepting information online need to be backed up frequently. How frequently depends on how important the data is to the company, and how unacceptable some data loss is in a disaster. * For a relatively low traffic site where the data being collected isn't all that critical, weekly backups may suffice suf·fice v. suf·ficed, suf·fic·ing, suf·fic·es v.intr. 1. To meet present needs or requirements; be sufficient: These rations will suffice until next week. . * For sites collecting large amounts of orders and client information every day, daily backups are a minimum. * The very largest e-commerce sites have been known to take backups on an hourly basis, or even have their data constantly written to backup computers in a process known as replication In database management, the ability to keep distributed databases synchronized by routinely copying the entire database or subsets of the database to other servers in the network. There are various replication methods. . The technologies Technologies used for back solutions will vary depending on the operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. platform and the type of data that is being backed up. In a Windows environment (1) (upper case "W") Refers to computers running under a Microsoft Windows operating system. (2) (lower case "w") Also called a "windowing environment," it refers to any software that provides multiple windows on screen such as Windows, Mac, Motif and X Window. , Veritas (www.veritas.com) software's BackupExec is a premier solution for those who cannot afford any data loss. Veritas produces special agents to work with many leading software applications to ensure data from those applications is backed up perfectly. In a Unex environment, open source backup such as Bacula This article is about computer backup software. For the penile bone found in some mammals, see baculum. Bacula is an open source, network based computer back-up program. (www.bacula.org) makes for a high-quality, low-cost solution. Types of media to backup on In addition to the software products that actually run backups, businesses must consider what type of media they want their backup stored on. Choices include: * Secondary hard drives in the same computer that is running the site, * Tape drives, * Separate storage devices, * CDs or DVDs. CDs and DVDs make for great portable backups, but are limited to relatively small file sizes (roughly 700MB and 4.8GB respectively). Network storage devices can be very expensive, but they can backup enormous amounts of data. Tape drives offer perhaps the best balance of cost, storage capacity, portability, security and quality. Backups done to a second hard drive are the easiest on the budget and the fastest in terms of restore time, but they are prone to corruption in a situation where the disaster is caused by a hacker A person who writes programs in assembly language or in system-level languages, such as C. The term often refers to any programmer, but its true meaning is someone with a strong technical background who is "hacking away" at the bits and bytes. . Get professional help Choosing the right backup plan for your business should be done in consultation with an experienced professional who can help you design a solution that will allow you to restore your site to full functionality as quickly as needed as needed prn. See prn order. . If you have an outside firm hosting your website, ask them what they're doing about backup. While often overlooked in the price-conscious shopping process, backups are critical to the long-term success of any web operation. Computers being what they are, after a certain amount of time it is a given that your backup solution will be tested. It is just a matter of when. It is best to be prepared for this day with an appropriate backup solution. Chris Kivlehan is the marketing manager for INetU Managed Hosting, an award-winning web hosting provider that specializes in managed dedicated hosting Typically refers to a single Web site that is hosted on a stand-alone server. See dedicated server. for businesses nationwide. 610-266-7441, www.inetu.net |
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