How Often Should You Backup Your Website? (Malaysia)
Understanding the 3-2-1 backup strategy and offsite verification for business continuity.
The 3-2-1 Strategy
"I have a backup plugin installed." That's good, but it's not a disaster recovery plan.
What is the 3-2-1 Rule?
- 3 copies of your data (1 production, 2 backups).
- 2 different storage media (e.g., local server and cloud object storage).
- 1 copy offsite (physically or geographically separated from the primary server).
How Often Should You Backup?
It depends on your "Recovery Point Objective" (RPO)—how much data can you afford to lose?
1. E-commerce Sites (High Frequency) If you process orders hourly, a daily backup means you could lose up to 24 hours of customer orders. You need real-time incremental backups or at least hourly snapshots.
2. Corporate/Brochure Sites (Medium Frequency) If content changes weekly, a daily database backup and weekly full file backup is usually sufficient.
3. Static Sites (Low Frequency) Backups are only required when code or assets change. The repository (like GitHub) acts as the primary backup.
The Missing Step: Restoration Drills
A backup is only theoretical until it is successfully restored. We recommend quarterly restoration drills to a staging environment to verify backup integrity and test recovery times.
Ready to verify who owns your website?
Replace uncertainty with a decision-ready ownership and access report. The fixed Ownership & Access Review is RM1,500 before SST and includes a 30-day action plan.