Although we strive to use only the highest quality components available for our servers, there always exists the possibility of drive failure. Server hard drives are used literally 24 hours a day non-stop. Being mechanical in nature, they are the component on all servers that is most prone to failure.
This is why backup procedure should be one of the key areas you consider before choosing a host. You must be able to trust that in any event, be it drive failure, fire, flooding, earthquake, sabotage or theft, your data will still be there when it's over.
With our hosting control panel software, it is easy to create and/or restore a backup of your entire web site all by yourself. We've even got a great Flash tutorial demonstrating how to do this in our tutorials area! |
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More importantly, our automated data backup system goes three levels deep and is checked by our staff to ensure proper operation. Here's what we do for each and every managed hosting account on all servers:
Level 1:
Server |
Daily - A full backup is generated for each hosting account. This includes the whole file system, email, aliases, filters, databases, etc. The archive is transferred to a separate drive on the server reserved only for data backup.
Weekly - Every Saturday, a full backup is generated and archived to this same backup drive.
Monthly - On the last day of every month, a full backup is generated and archived once again to this same backup drive.
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Level 2:
Off-Site |
On Mondays, after the daily backups are generated, we begin off-site data transfer. Backup archives from every server we manage are transferred to our primary server in Boston which are then checked for data integrity.
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Level 3:
Tape |
Archives transferred during the previous process are then stored to tape drives and/or other backup mediums. This information is then kept readily available for a minimum of one month. |
Some statistics about U.S. data loss (from our online data backup area):
- Six percent of all PCs will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year. Given the number of PCs used in US businesses in 1998, that translates to approximately 4.6 million data loss episodes. (The Cost Of Lost Data, David M. Smith)
- 30 percent of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year. Seventy percent fail within five years. (Home Office Computing Magazine)
- 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately. (National Archives & Records Administration in Washington)
- Companies that aren't able to resume operations within ten days (of a disaster hit) are not likely to survive. (Strategic Research Institute)
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If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us. |
Related Links:
EMC Corporation - world leader in information storage systems
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