Pros and Cons of Local Backups You Need To Know
To make sure you do not lose all your website data, you need to find ways to secure them. One of the ways is to create backups, and there are different types of backups you can choose to secure your website data. One of the methods people consider is local backup, where they use hardware like external hard disks, flash drives, and other similar options.
For many businesses, these local backups may seem to be easier to create, but for some businesses, these are not ideal options. They expect auto backup facilities from their hosting services that will create a cloud backup instead of using more hardware. The benefits of cloud and auto backups are exemplary, but there are a few benefits of local backups that come with a number of drawbacks.
Dig deeper into this article to get familiar with the pros and cons of creating a local backup for your website.
Top 2 Pros of Having Local Backup for Your Website
The preference for creating local backups by various businesses is diminishing with better auto backup services provided by the hosts. But there are a few benefits that make website owners go for a local backup.
Following are a few benefits why people prefer creating a local backup for their websites.
1. Provides better control
One of the reasons why many businesses prefer going for a local backup is because they can enjoy control benefits. It is because the sources they use for backups are in their buildings, and they can access the data without following any steps and procedures. This way, businesses can get faster access to their website data. But you can also get better control and backup access with cloud backups if the hosting service provides these benefits. You can opt for the UAE hosting services that provide secure cloud backups with higher access and control over the data.
2. Threat isolation
Having your website data stored in flash drives and hard drives will keep it safe from cyber threats. You do not have to worry about the security of your data or your data being accessed by unwanted people. But this does not mean that your data is completely safe with such backup methods. Any virus or fault in the hardware used for creating the backup will delete all your data.
If your backup devices are connected to your network and hackers are gaining access to your IT systems, you must shut down your data center and physically separate your storage devices from your servers. The ability to do so at the drop of a hat provides many business owners and managers with peace of mind. Because CSPs manage the data of many other clients, they may not be able to safeguard your data as rapidly as your own IT staff.
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Top 3 Cons of having local website backups
The damages these local backups provide to your data are irrecoverable, which is why most websites avoid opting for such methods. Website owners cannot take risks of storing their website data onsite because of the drawbacks they offer. To avoid these drawbacks, you must ask your hosting server to provide you with an off-site backup facility according to your bandwidth and usage demands.
Following are a few drawbacks and cons of creating local backups for websites, and you must switch to other reliable options.
1. Consumes a lot of time
Creating a local backup takes a lot of time than creating an auto backup or backup on the cloud. You will have to invest a lot of your time and resources to create a backup of your website, either daily, weekly, or monthly. It is better to opt for backup methods that do not ask for your time and number of resources. You can get your IT team to work on other essentials instead of making them waste time creating website backups.
2. Data is at risk
You never know when your hardware devices or the flash drive will face an issue, and you will lose all your website data. The data losses faced with local backups are irrecoverable, and there are no means to keep your data safe. But with cloud backups, you can improve the safety and security of your backup with effective security plans and updates. Your hosting server will provide you with all these auto backup facilities making sure they are secure from external or internal threats.
3. Expensive type of backup
One thing is guaranteed the website data will keep increasing with the increases in your business growth and expansion. To create backups locally when you have a great increase in your website data is not a cost-effective solution. There is no end to how many hard disks and hardware you will have to purchase to fulfill the storage needs. It is better to opt for other cost-effective backup methods like cloud backup. You can opt for the best hosting services in UAE to ensure your websites are hosted properly and you are not paying a hefty amount to create secure backups.
How Frequently Should Your Website Be Backed Up?
Website backups, like PC backups, should be done on a regular basis. Backups should be performed on a daily or weekly basis, or as frequently as your website is updated. For example, if you just publish one blog post every week and make no other changes to your site, weekly backups will enough.
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Do you want to have secure website backups?
If you have to create a new website from start, you will waste the time and money required in doing so. That is not insignificant. And if your website has a lot of pages or an active blog, you may not be able to reproduce part of the information you worked hard on—a section of your website may be lost forever.
Aside from the cost and time implications, if you want your websites to be secure, then you need to make sure that there are enough backups for all the website data. These backups need to be safe from any type of damage, which is impossible when you go for local onsite backups. You can hire web hosting services to provide regular secure website backups.
