Imagine waking up one morning, after taking a sip of coffee and settling down to use your website only to find out that your home page no longer shows your business slogan and product description. Instead, all you see there are spam sites and adverts from unknown companies. Yes, it’s the ugly proof that your site has been hacked. Though many website owners knows the importance of backing up their site, only a few actually pay attention to this, until disaster hits.
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Backup: Disasters are everywhere
Now here is a typical scenario that took place in Winnipeg CA when a local company (which will remain unnamed) purchased a new accounting software. To install and run this new software, the company contracted an IT provider. Shortly after installation, the accounting software got corrupted by some form of a virus. So, one of the employees called up their service provider to resolved the problem. The IT provider transferred the call to their accounting software technician to figure out the best solution to the problem. Upon a series of diagnostics, the best method by far, was the restoration of the accounting data from the previous night.
How do you recover lost data?
After several trials, it was evident that the accounting software would recover data from old accounts instead of new ones. For this reason, the data from the previous night were lost because they were never backed up in the first place.
So, the software technician proposed another solution. He could fix the corrupted data but there were zero guarantees that all the accounting data would be retrieved. It seemed like a dead end. Immediately, service provider’s team lead organised a meeting with the local company’s CEO. After all, someone had to explain the course of events to the man in charge.
During the meeting, the CEO asked the most important question. ‘Why didn’t you back up both old and new accounts to our new accounting software?’ The team lead fell back in his chair with a weak justification – “they were only hired to install their new accounting system.”
When Disaster Strikes
The CEO was enraged, so much, that he sent the team lead out of the meeting room. He was distraught. In the middle of his fury, he sent for the former IT provider to help him clear up the mess. The latest solution to the problem was simple – rehire the previous accounting software company to fix the issue and install the missing pieces of information. Unfortunately, this resolution was both costly and time consuming for the local company. But that was their only solution.
This would never be the case if the company had just decided to make backup a priority. Unfortunately, this scenario isn’t unique in any way. Many website owners undervalue and ignore the need to back-up their websites.
Why backup?
For every business, the importance of website backup cannot be overemphasised. Website backup is the only insurance plan any website owner can invest in to prevent future disasters. Many things can lead to data loss, both accidental and intentional, that can destroy all the hard work you put in to building your website. So, what are these unforeseen alarms to pay attention to? Let’s have a look at 4 reasons why you need website backup.
Accidental Deletion
Mistakes are prone to happen at the workplace. The universal truth is that people make mistakes- we’re only human after all (though AIs live among us). Someone may inadvertently delete important files with a single click. Then, boom! Your site breaks down or customers valuable data is lost. While some people believe that a hosting provider’s daily backup is enough to prevent this problem, the fact is – daily backups is for internal use should the hosting provider encounter issues. Unless a website host offers backup in a package, regular backups might not be done. Many website owners fail to read the terms of their plan and assume there is automatic backup. Moreover, the disaster recovery backup by some hosting providers may not be available fast enough to quash the panic. Sometimes, the installation of a backup software is possible, but the cost may be ridiculously high.
Face it: Hackers are out there
One of the most popular content management system (CMS) on the net is the WordPress. Because of its open-source nature, anyone may have a hold on the coding system. As soon as WordPress updates core files, thousands of hackers poke around and become aware of exploitable vulnerabilities in the code (This is similar for many search engines too). Afterward, they install malware injection bots to infect sites. WordPress users, it is time to pay attention. It is even worse for small business owners who struggle to keep up with tech trends. Regular backup maintenance keeps a website’s data secure and online all year round.
Hardware failure
(Image source: elements.envato.com)
Every computer is susceptible to a crash. Once a hard drive on a computer becomes unreadable, the computer is only some minute away from a crash. Thus, website backup is vital. To be sure, you can consider these three options to really secure your website:
- Keep an offline version of your site
- Keep another copy on an external drive
- And, finally, backup on the server
It is very important to record the dates of each backup for easy retrieval at crucial points. By doing so, you always have access to the most current copy of your site’s data.
Updates might go wrong
Sometimes, updating your files might not go as expected. With just a click on the ‘update’ button and important files go missing. Then, the phone starts buzzing with customers complaining. Why? They’re all disgruntled because they lost some data or for some other reason.
Wouldn’t it be convenient just to hit a magical button that would restore serenity your website? Well, that’s the magic a backup software promises. With single-click-file restoration, disaster recovery, file sync and share – backup can save the day! We know backup sounds like a boring subject, insignificant and pricey, but it is important. Don’t put off website backup another day; it’s far too valuable. Worry less about data loss and give your website the protection it deserves. A reliable backup service will protect data from spilled coffee (or any water damage), unintended deletions, natural disasters, power failures, ransomware attacks, and other cyber-attacks, etc.
To Conclude
Finally, remember that money and time wasted cannot be recovered. Backing up your site could save you a lot of time and money especially when you are face to face with data loss, hacks etc. Why not protect your website from future disaster? Don’t hesitate and form a plan to protect your site before disaster strikes!
