Are These Online Data Backups Important To You?
Total Wiped Out! Disappeared! Vanished!...these were the words
from one of my friends when one of his online databases had been
hacked into and caused a total havoc to his online business. All
his mailing lists, data files and valuable information
pertaining to his e-commerce were lost beyond recovery, simply
because he overlooked the importance of regular backup.
These days, database-driven websites are just as important as
the business itself. All the customer data, transaction
information as well as your mailing lists are stored in database
format. Popular ones are the open-source database called MySQL.
But the main problem here for all the home business owners
especially is that they would tend to rely on their web hosting
to provide them the so-called reliable hosting. The fact is,
most of the web hosting in general on the internet are just as
fragile as you could expect. Ever heard of just many of the poor
websites been hacked and corrupted by the unscrupulous hackers,
for example?
While we can't really totally prevent these hacking from
happening, it is therefore crucial for you to be able to take
your own preventive measures to periodically backup your website
databases. Here are some of the reasons why a database backup is
important to your business.
Maintain minimal site downtime There are times when you
would want to switch to another hosting for your websites, but
the hassle of contacting your hosting for the help on backups
and restoration of your databases can, at times be a major set
back for you. That is why, once you've figured out and got used
to backing your database, duplicating your database into another
one can just as easy as you want it to be. The point here is to
consistently backup your database so that you will be able to
restore the data back without causing a huge delay or site
downtime. Remember, the longer the delay, the more money you'll
lose.
Reduce risk of database wiped out With the advent of
immense technologies and tools available to the potential
hackers, hacking into your websites and causing havoc to your
business should prove to be a peanut for them. There are bunch
of automated online tools or systems available which could
backup your online database periodically, thus freeing yourself
from the worries of the having your database wiped out someday.
Reduce workload from the server Surprisingly, most of the
website owners that I know of perform their website testing and
fine tuning using their web hosting as their test bed. Since
this method can take away some bandwidth and increase your
server workload, with your backup file on hand, you could
perform the same task on your own local computer just by
restoring the backup file. If you are using a phpMyAdmin as your
database administration console, backing up and restoring the
MySql data is easy even for the beginners. At the end of the day
you could potentially reduce a huge amount of workload from the
server.
Protect Data Corruption All computer systems are not 100%
bug free. There are annoying times when your online system just
couldn't perform the way it should be and you could be driving
nuts trying to find out what are the causes of it. It could
simple be your corrupted data in your database. If you have
backup data in place, you can just restore backup the relevant
tables which you suspect have been corrupted or you can even
restore the whole database if situation warrants. This should
essentially save you a lot of your time trying to debug your
online systems.
As a conclusion, knowing how to backup and restore should be
learnt by all the online business owners. Backup and restore
process can be very simple task for you to perform and once
you've got the knack of it, you can be rest assured of your
online database integrity and never to worry about losing lots
of money from your website downtime.