Catastrophic data loss is rare, but it’s best to be prepared by keeping a back-up of your encrypted data in a second location.

Problem

You want to minimize the risk of losing data due to crashes or natural disasters.

Solution

Keep a back-up of your data in a place other than where your equipment is located. If you use remote hosting, make sure the service performs remote back-ups for you.

Discussion

Without regular back-ups, hardware failures, software failures, burglaries, and natural disasters can all lead to data loss and to the project website being inaccessible.

Although complete equipment failure and natural disasters are rare, they do occur. Since it is statistically improbable for disasters to occur in two places, your data should be kept in two locations, such as in your office and in your home. For security reasons, the data should be encrypted.

If you utilize a remote hosting service, be sure to check that their back-up and recovery procedures are such that, should there be a problem, they can have your site up and running with only a short interruption.