A backup strategy that holds up

Almost everybody has backups. Far fewer people have usable backups. The difference comes down to four questions.

How often?

Look at how much work you can afford to lose. A shop with daily orders needs a different frequency from a brochure site edited once a quarter.

How long do you keep them?

A single backup set does not help if the problem is three days old. Keep several points in time, spaced further apart as they age.

Where are they?

A backup on the same server disappears with that server. At least one copy has to sit elsewhere, on a different system.

Do they work?

This is the question nobody asks. Restore one, once a year, on a test environment. It is the only check that proves anything.

Are you backing up everything?

Files and database and mail. The third is almost always forgotten because it lives somewhere else.