It happens again and again that I have to deal with customers whose website has crashed and that they ask me and please me that it runs “like yesterday”. However, most of the time, these customers have not noticed the evidence of non-existent backups or missing security upgrades.
I would like to try in this post to explain why a backup of your website is important.
Restoration
If a problem arises, the programmer or administrator can immediately restore a working version. Some hosters make backups for themselves but you never know when the last backups of the provider were made.
For example, I once had a client who strictly opposed routine backups and his website did not work at some point. He then called me and wanted it to work again, but I knew he had a virus attack so I could not help him anymore.
Tracing
Recently, I had to deal again with a customer whose website was infected with viruses. I have re-set his entire CMS for security reasons and he has asked me what this is coming from?
I honestly had to confess to him that I can not answer that question because I can not see the history of the files. If he had asked for daily backups, I could have analyzed the history of the files, but my hands were tied.
Stage implementation
If you have a website that always requires new features, a backup is the most convenient way for the programmer to build a local system.
If eg something is to be programmed, the programmer needs to start with the work exactly the same version that is currently running. Based on that, he will start his work. For this, you just have to send him the last backup and he can work.
Personally, I do the same when customers in the backup routine want to have an extension. That’s how I managed to work without server failures.
Data protection
That may sound strange, but you can also work for the privacy of customers through backups … Let me explain that to you.
I once had a customer who bought some things and then deleted his account from the website. Since his account was deleted, we did not have any information about his purchase in the database. After a year, he then contacted us and asked us for an invoice. I looked into the backups and let him generate his bill.
Conclusion
I can understand this well if you find it a bit strange, if the service provider recommends a daily backup for you. This usually sounds like paying for a service that you do not use anyway. That’s just like insurance. You can be assured that in any case someone can fix the mistakes again.
It is always better to have somebody or a company do it, where you have a direct contact person on your side. The direct contact person can intervene at any time and also take care of further questions. However, letting the backups do a running system will not be able to provide answers.
