Have you ever been in a situation where your important data is lost and you hoped that you have made a backup for it? Perhaps more than once!

As we all know, disaster can strike any time whether we are prepared for it or not. Obviously we shall ever be prepared or we stand to loose our valuable data which may cost us our business.

For online business owners, the most important form of their assets is their data (I am not talking about hard assets here such as cash, hardware or similar stuff and other types of soft assets such human resources, brands, skill and knowledge).

This data type of ‘soft’ asset mainly exists as files and databases and typically they are stored in diverse places and storage media such as PC, notebook, computer server, physical storage, disks, tapes and so on.

You have every reason to protect your data from:

• Disaster – natural or manmade (flood, tornado, fire)
• Physical theft
• Cyber attack and theft
• System crashes

Here are some important data that you shall put a backup process in place:

• All files on your web server especially ones that have been customized. Standard codes can be easily obtained from the source but it can be painful if not impossible to recreate the all the customizations that have been done. I would like to emphasize on folders where your specific data such as images and other media are kept. You’ll need these as you restore after a site crash or something.
• Databases e.g. mySQL files.
• Important email messages.
• All purchase transaction records.
• All sales transaction records.
• Browser bookmarks and favorites. Keeping records of your favorite add-ons can be time-saving too.
• Offline archive of blog posts and articles.
• List of members in your auto-responder system and membership sites.

Recommended Readings

• The Best Online Backup Services

• How I Handle Backups and Disaster Recovery