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Website planning: backing up your website (screen 6 of 9)
Anyone who has ever used computers will tell you that they always let you down when you least expect it.
As part of your organisation's computer management system you should
put in place a regular 
backup
procedure(1) for all your organisation's computer files - including
your website.
- Store one backup copy in your office for ready retrieval.
- Store another off the premises so that a fire, a burst water main or theft won't destroy all your files.
A backup takes only a short amount of time. Re-creating your computer files and your website from scratch takes much longer.
There are software programs and utilities such as Flypage(2)
and Infostreet's
Instant Web Site Back Up(3) which will do the backup process for your
website automatically.
Backup options
There are a range of different technologies available for the backup procedure and what you choose will probably depend on how big your website is. You could select:
- Floppy disk (holds 1.44kb of data).
- Zip drive and disk (each disk holds 100mb of data).
- Jazz drive and cartridge.
- Portable CD-ROM.
- Tape.
- Mirror site.
- External hard drive.
What you choose will depend on both the size of your site and the frequency of your backups. Backup procedures should relate to the frequency with which you update your website.
For example, if you are changing your website every day, then you should backup those changes every evening. If you change your website less frequently then you may backup less frequently - weekly or monthly perhaps. But whatever option you choose, you must work on the basis that if your computer goes down your backup procedures will prevent your organisation from being negatively affected.
Backup regularly and completely.
Disaster plan
Backups can certainly reduce the problems a loss of data can create. But in addition, you need to develop an action plan for when things do go wrong. For example, in April 1999 a computer virus called Melissa brought some organisations and government departments' email systems to a halt. It was a virus which replicated quickly and used the Outlook Explorer address books on users' computers to send the virus on.
When something like this happens you need to have a procedure in place to handle the incident.
Incident handling
The stages of incident handling are preparation, identification, containment, eradication and follow-up.
Identify the person in the organisation who takes charge, the person responsible for disconnecting your server from the Internet if that's required, and the person or organisation who can help you eradicate the problem and get your system working again.
The CERT
Coordination Center(4) provides a range of useful resources to help you
develop an awareness of the sorts of problems you might face and ways of dealing
with them.
To be aware of viruses which might impact on your system, visit a virus
alert centre(5) or anti-virus
research centre(6).
| 6 of 9 |
References
- Backup procedure http://www.inc.com/articles/2000/03/18583.html
- Flypage http://www.flypage.com
- Infostreet's Instant Website Back Up http://www.instantweb.com/tools/backup.html
- CERT Coordination Center http://www.cert.org/
- Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team http://www.networkassociates.com/us/security/home.asp
- Symantec AntiVirus Research Center http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/
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