The loss of critical data can have devastating consequences for any organisation. It can mean downtime, lost sales, reputational damage, disgruntled customers and significant financial penalties. With today’s companies being heavily reliant on data, implementing a robust backup strategy is essential for safeguarding all their valuable information. In this post, we will look at the crucial role of a web host in business backup strategies and explain how they can contribute to your overall data protection framework.
Reliable infrastructure
A reputable web host plays a vital role in ensuring that your data is stored securely. They provide the necessary infrastructure, including servers and storage systems, to host your website and its associated data. A reliable web host invests in state-of-the-art technology, such as redundant servers, server monitoring and backup power supplies, to minimise the risk of data loss due to hardware failures or power outages. As a result, by entrusting your data to a reputable web host, you can rest assured that your information is stored in a secure and stable environment.
Regular data backups
If the worst should happen, your company’s ability to recover from data loss depends upon how quickly restoration can be achieved and up to what point. These are known as the recovery time objective and the recovery point objective.
A web host typically offers automated backup solutions which allow you to schedule regular backups of your website and databases. Different companies have different needs when it comes to how frequently they need their data backed up. For some, it is vital that data is continually backed up in order to reduce the risk of losing the most recent information, should hardware failure, cyberattack or accidental deletion take place. By opting for an automated backup solution from your web host, you have a much greater chance of achieving your recovery point objective and ensuring business continuity.
Ready to safeguard your website? Read our Practical Guide to Backing Up Websites and Data
Availability
While the frequency of backing up helps you meet your recovery point objective, it’s the availability of your backups that will speed up restoration and let you achieve your recovery time objective. Cloud-based backup solutions are essential here as they offer 100% uptime and so ensure that whenever you need a backup, it will be available. What’s more, it also means that you can quickly download or move a backup over the internet, speeding up recovery time even more.
Off-site data storage
One of the key advantages of relying on a web host for backups is their ability to store data off-site. Not only does this mean your on-site data can be stored remotely; your host will also ensure that any backup of your hosted server is stored at a different geographical location. By doing this, your web host provides an additional layer of protection against unforeseen events, such as natural disasters or physical damage to the hosting facility. For example, if the data centre where your primary server is located is destroyed by a fire, your backups remain intact and accessible at a different data centre, enabling swift recovery and minimising data loss. You can even backup data hosted with one host on the servers of another. Our Acronis solution, for instance, lets you securely back up your AWS, Azure, and Google data with us.
Scalability and resource allocation
As your business grows, your data requirements also increase. Indeed, today, even smaller companies are collecting vast amounts of data. A good web host will understand this and will offer scalable solutions to accommodate your expanding needs. As a result, you should expect not just ample storage space for your data, but also the resource allocation to handle it without compromising processing performance.
In addition, a web host should be able to allocate resources efficiently, ensuring that your backups do not impede the regular operation of your website. This is particularly vital if you require regular backups.
Security
Data security is a major concern for any business, and a web host plays a pivotal role in safeguarding your data against unauthorised access and cyber threats. Look for a web host that implements robust security measures, including advanced firewalls, intrusion and malware detection systems, and encryption protocols, to protect your data from external threats.
And while it’s critical to keep the data on your server secure, it’s also vital that your backups are equally secure. A responsible web host will protect your backups with military-grade AES-256 encryption, not just in transit but with the option to do so at rest. What’s more, they will maintain data integrity, so that if a backup is needed, you can rest assured that it is not corrupted and will work as intended.
Conclusion
A reliable web host plays a vital role in the backup strategy of today’s data-driven businesses. By providing reliable infrastructure, regular backups, availability, off-site storage, scalability, resource allocation and rock-solid security, they can ensure the safety and accessibility of your critical data.
For more information, check out our Remote Backup Plans or our Acronis solution.
