Off-site backups are essential for any WordPress website, providing a crucial layer of protection against data loss and ensuring that the website can be restored quickly and easily in the event of any data disaster.
Summary:
Off-site backups are necessary for any type of website, and WordPress websites are no exception. These backups provide a critical layer of protection against data loss due to malicious attacks, hardware failure, or other unexpected events. Having an off-site backup will ensure that you have a working version of your website in the event of any data disaster, and it can help you restore your website quickly and easily. Popular off-site backup solutions include cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive, as well as dedicated WordPress backup plugins, systematic manual approaches, and many software-based solutions. The estimated value of off-site backups will vary based on the size of the website and the potential risks associated with not having a backup in place. Investing in off-site backups can help ensure that any data loss or website downtime is kept to a minimum and can save time and money in the long run.
Should my organization be keeping off-site backups of our WordPress website?
Yes, our engineers strongly suggest your organization maintain off-site backups of your WordPress website.
Off-site backups are necessary for any type of website, and WordPress websites are certainly no exception. These backups provide a critical layer of protection against data loss due to malicious attacks, hardware failure, or other unexpected events.
Having an off-site backup will ensure that you have a working version of your website in the event of any data disaster, and it can help you restore your website quickly and easily.
For businesses that store sensitive customer or financial information on their websites, off-site backups are especially important for protecting this information from any potential loss.
What are off-site WordPress backups?
Off-site backups are backup files of your website stored in secure, remote locations such as a cloud storage platform or another physical location far away from the original data. These are useful for protecting data from physical disasters such as a fire or flood, and also from malicious attacks such as ransomware.
Companies decide to invest in off-site backups when they want to ensure that their data is secured in the event of a disaster or that they have access to a backup if they suffer a data loss.
This is especially important for businesses that store critical customer or financial information.
Off-site backups are an essential component of WordPress maintenance plans.
Critical fail-safe option for WordPress website owners
Off-site website backups are one of several failsafe options that businesses can use to protect their data. Other options include data backup to a secure, external hard drive or server, as well as automated backups from cloud providers.
Are off-site backups really necessary for a WordPress website?
Yes.
Off-site backups are necessary for any type of website and WordPress websites are no exception. Off-site backups provide an additional layer of protection against data loss due to malicious attacks, hardware failure, or other unexpected events.
For WordPress websites, it’s important to have a reliable backup solution in place that includes off-site backups. This way, you can restore your website quickly and easily in the event of any data disaster.
Without a recent backup, any mishaps or issues can be catastrophic. However, with a regular backup routine in place, you can easily recover your WordPress site with minimal disruption and loss of data. Make sure you back up your WordPress site regularly and always keep a recent copy on hand.
Popular off-site backup solutions include cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive, as well as dedicated WordPress backup plugins, systematic manual approaches, and many software-based solutions.
Where should I store my website backup?
You should not store your WordPress backups on the server where your live site is located.
Instead, we recommend using both local storage and cloud storage such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, or DigitalOcean Spaces to ensure you have multiple copies of your backups saved in different locations.
This follows the 3-2-1 backup rule which recommends keeping three copies of your WordPress site including one offsite.
Tools can make off-site backups much easier
Backing up your WordPress site is an essential part of being a responsible website owner. If something were to happen to your site, you want to be able to restore it quickly and without any data loss.
There are various ways that you can back up your WordPress site, from using a plugin or service, to manually backing up your files yourself. Whatever method you choose, make sure that you’re storing backups off-site (such as in the cloud) so that they remain safe from any potential problems with your server.
Once you have regular backups in place, make sure to test them periodically to ensure everything is working properly and that all of your content is being backed up correctly.
Backing up your WordPress site is essential, even in a perfect world. Let’s explore some of the options that exist for this.
Jetpack – backups
Jetpack Backup is a backup service from Automattic, the company behind WordPress and WooCommerce.
It offers two types of backups, depending on your plan: Jetpack Personal which includes daily backups stored for 30 days, and Jetpack Professional which includes real-time incremental backups that are stored indefinitely. The cost of the Personal plan is $3.50 per month or $39 per year while the Professional plan costs $29 per month or $299 per year.
Jetpack Backup is an automated plugin that provides powerful backups and easy one-click restores for WordPress sites. With Jetpack, you can quickly restore your site even if it is offline, making it a great choice for those who rely on their website to make money or spend time creating content. Plus, the Jetpack mobile app makes restoring from anywhere easier than ever.
Includes VaultPress Backup
Jetpack VaultPress Backup provides reliable, secure backups of all files, including database and file backups, WooCommerce customer and order data, and redundant copies stored on multiple servers with global server infrastructure. It is tested to ensure no conflicts with major plugins or hosts and is encrypted to keep your data secure.
You can quickly restore to any point, save hours of time, and the activity log lets you know exactly who made changes so that you can look like a pro for your clients.
Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a really good WordPress plugin option for eCommerce stores who want to ensure their order and customer data is safe. It allows users to quickly restore their site to any past state while keeping all orders and products current. Additionally, it provides GDPR compliant security protection for customer data as well as custom WooCommerce table backups.
UpdraftPlus backup solution for WordPress
UpdraftPlus is the most popular free WordPress backup plugin.
It is active on over two million sites and has an excellent 4.8-star rating from 3,500 reviews. It allows for manual or automatic backups with a custom schedule that can be tailored to your website’s needs.
UpdraftPlus is the most popular and highly-rated backup plugin available, due to its comprehensive features and ease of use. It restores as well as backing up, backs up to more cloud options than any other plugins, allows for automatic backups on a schedule, uses fewer server resources than others and has been tested on over 3 million sites.
UpdraftPlus is a WordPress plugin that simplifies backups and restores. It offers cloud storage options such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 (or compatible), UpdraftVault, Rackspace Cloud, FTP and DreamObjects among others. The paid version also provides additional features like backup to Microsoft OneDrive or Azure and WebDAV support.
UpdraftPlus is a free and fully functional plugin for WordPress which enables users to back up their files, databases, plugins and themes with manual or scheduled backups. It supports multiple cloud storage options such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 (or compatible), UpdraftPlus Vault, Rackspace Cloud, FTP etc., automatically resumes failed uploads and is supported on all current versions of PHP.
BackupBuddy
BackupBuddy is a premium WordPress plugin from iThemes that allows users to backup all or some of their website content, such as the database, themes, plugins and media files.
Users can choose when they want these backups to be executed – hourly up to monthly. These backups can be stored on BackupBuddyStash or other cloud storage locations like Amazon S3, Google Drive and Dropbox. Plus, it also includes features for site migration and cloning WordPress as well as deployment which helps users create their own staging sites.
BackupBuddy was created in 2010 to meet the need for an effective backup solution, as WordPress does not have one built-in. Server crashes, hacks, malware attacks, user errors and other issues can completely wipe out a website unless there is a current backup available. BackupBuddy provides this service and helps protect websites from disaster scenarios.
BackupBuddy, a feature designed to make backing up WordPress sites easy.
It allows users to customize their backup contents, download zip files of the site after it’s backed up, schedule backups and store them off-site in various remote locations like Amazon S3 or Google Drive. Additionally, users can receive email notifications once the process is complete and restore their entire website with ImportBuddy if something goes wrong. This includes individual file restores as well as database rollbacks and full website restores.
Is there a size limit for backups?
There is no set limit to how much can be backed up, however server configurations such as script timeout time, memory limits, CPU usage and hard drive utilization will affect backup capabilities. When using shared hosting servers typically allow backups of 400-1500MB before running into limitations due to sharing resources with other users on the same server.
If you have your own dedicated server it may be possible to adjust settings in order increase its capabilities further.
ROI: weighing options and understanding the value of backing up your WordPress website
WordPress, as a content management system, consists of two parts: the Database, which contains posts and other data generated on your site, and Files (WordPress Core installation, plugins, themes etc.), which together create the look and information on your website.
Regular backups are necessary in case of potential disaster such as corruption or deletion so you can quickly restore lost data. Instructions for backing up WordPress sites include using host-provided software; creating syncs with your site using WinSCP or similar programs; copying files to desktop via FTP Clients or UNIX Shell Skills; compressing into zip files to save space while keeping multiple versions backed up in different mediums such as CD/DVDs or hard drives.
Additional support is available through online resources like the WordPress Support Forum regarding backup documentation and automatic solutions such as plugins for backups.
Let’s explore the ROI on managing backups of your WordPress website
The return on investment (ROI) of managing backups of a WordPress website can be significant. By having a reliable backup system in place, it can help ensure that any data loss or website downtime is kept to a minimum. This can prevent costly downtime, lost data, and even website security issues. Additionally, backups can be used to quickly restore a website after an attack or other issue. This can save time and money in the long run, as website restoration can take considerable time and resources.
Downtime is expensive
There’s no denying it, downtime is expensive for organizations of any size.
“For eCommerce giant Amazon, whose entire business model relies on uptime, estimated costs are around $13.22 million per hour.” explains Kent Schultz.
When Apple’s app store experienced a DNS issue, they found themselves with a $25M puzzle that took 12 hours to solve.
Calculating the value of off-site backups for your organization
This isn’t very complicated math, here.
The value of lost business due to downtime can be estimated by calculating the cost of any potential lost sales or customers due to the website being offline. This cost can be calculated by looking at the average revenue generated by the website per hour, day, week, or month, as well as any potential lost customers due to the downtime.
Don’t forget the cost of any potential damage to the website’s reputation due to the downtime should also be taken into account.
So, when you ask yourself: ‘Is it possible to estimate the value of an off-site backup?’, the answer is a resounding, “YES!”
Honestly, we’re barely touching this and your numbers should be pretty insane.
Off-site backups are affordable, no matter the organization
Calculating the cost of any potential downtime, data loss, or WordPress website security issues that could occur without a backup in place… Don’t even get into it! Be sure to include the cost of restoring a website after an attack or other issue (service provider or labor costs) can be taken into account.
Plus, you should really include the cost of security plugins, time spent keeping the site secure, and all the nights you lay awake in bed worrying about the website… Seriously, are you qualified for this?
The estimated value will vary based on the size of the website and the potential risks associated with not having a backup in place.
If you’re still doing math, honestly, you should explore our website, and discover how we could make managing your WordPress website (backups… and everything else…) totally hands-off for you and let you get back to doing whatever you should be doing.
