The modern computing landscape is an endless ocean of information churning infinite volumes of data. Running a website means dealing with this huge load of data and where there is data, it needs to be backed up and appropriately so. However, most often than not, when running data backups, websites often end up experiencing a downtime. After all, it is a resource-heavy process and can slow down the speed and function of the website. While this might seem like a technical compulsion, it can be easily avoided with new and improved mechanisms of data backup. Introducing zero-downtime backups, where you can back up your entire site without affecting its front end performance.

Backups and Downtime

How downtime is related to backup, you might think. To answer this, let’s understand how downtime works. Server downtime can occur mostly during technical glitches, human error, power failures, natural or man-made disasters (flood, fire, theft, etc.), and cyber attacks. However, even when running maintenance processes like backups, the site can experience similar downtimes. Although it is necessary to run these processes, it takes the site off its regular operations, even it means for a short time. More than most hosting providers take the website offline when running backups, to balance the resources. Sometimes, with some hosting solutions, the recovery process becomes so slow that it can lead to an extended outage of the site. Such prolonged downtime happens due to backing up from a single network interface, which becomes time-consuming. But during the time the site is not functional, visitors are not able to browse your site or do any transaction. Even if you have a static page, which does not deal with transactions, it can appear to be ‘timed out’ or display similar errors. When your user does not get access to your page, they immediately switch to another website, possibly your competitor/s to get what they have been looking for. While you were busy backing up your site data, you would have lost the chances of probable conversions. So, does it make to take such chances that can affect your business?

Fortunately, there is an easier and economical solution to this. Opt for a hosting service that can run automatic backups like cloud hosting or VPS hosting. Not only does cloud hosting boast a highly efficient hosting architecture, but it also ensures that data backup is done right. They use advanced backup tools that can do the needful in no time. They are light on resources and designed in a manner that allows your site to continue functioning normally, while the backup program runs in the background. Also, since cloud servers use a network of virtual servers, there are not one, but multiple versions of the site data (and other site assets) spread across. This decentralizes the process of data management and makes it faster to share, transfer, upload, or backup data from any point at any time. Thus, your users can do what they do on your site, transact, exchange, or download information, without affecting your process, or vice versa.

Summing up…

We know how important uptime is when it comes to online services. No matter how big or small your website is, if you cannot guarantee uptime to your visitors, you can lose valuable business, and probably chances of earning revenues. That is why opt for a hosting provider, who guarantees 99.99% server uptime along with automatic backups, so your website keeps up and running at all times!