Possible backup solutions
There are many different backup solutions that we can deploy for you to ensure they your data is safe. They start at the cheaper options and go up, depending on what level of paranoia you have will determine which you should go with. Each of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of the option that you choose it is always advisable to download the site to your local computer occasionally, especially if the site contains very important information. This information was originally for use with Total Server Solutions but it is a good general guide for people thinking about backups.
The first and cheapest option will cost $0 if you have a secondary drive in the server. That option simply uses the backup feature within the control panel to save the backups directly to the 2nd drive. Many clients choose this because it is cost effective and is reasonable safe. The downside is that if for some reason both hard drives crash at once your data is gone, while this is rare it is possible. If you have any information of significant value I would highly suggest against this method.
The second option is a datacenter provided backup space. This will vary on the datacenter but generally it will run around $20-30 for the amount of data that most people have. The backup space varies among datacenters but generally it is possible to use the control panel to take advantage of it. This is generally a pretty good method that offers decent reliability. The only real downside is that in a worst case scenario of the entire datacenter being destroyed the data would be gone, this is obviously a one and a million chance but if the data is worth thousands of dollars a remote backup needs to be considered.
The third option is targeted at people with multiple servers and simply uses the secondary drive in another server. We can setup the server so that each server saves the daily backups on the other server. While this is not usually suggested some clients do end up wanting to go this route. One major downside is generating backups it requires a fair amount of processing power and they may not finish by the end of the night.
Another possible option is a dedicated server that holds only backups. Depending on the datacenter this will end up running $50-100+. This is a good option if you require backups in a remote location, for instance another state, or if you just need a lot of space.
If you need something different from these suggestions please contact us and we can help you setup a solution that is right for you. These are by far not the only options that Total Server Solutions can offer you they are just some of the more common ones we get questions about. If you need a redundant website we have a lot of plans and solutions for high availability clusters which is exactly what you may need. With backups as well as the high availability solutions the sky really is the limit with what is possible, the budget is the major limit for both.