Most customers prefer low cost hosting plans. In an attempt to fit the cost in the available budget, they often disregard important features like backup solutions. Ignoring the importance of backup solutions is the main reason why websites take a longer time to get back on track when encountered with troubles like data corruption or hacking. Reputed hosting providers can minimize its impact, but there is always a possibility that the login credentials of the customers may get compromised. Under those circumstances, where a recovery option is inevitable, backup solutions can play its role.
Hosting providers mostly offer free backup solutions for Shared and Reseller plans. In case of Virtual Private Servers and Dedicated Servers, which are expected to host a high amount of data per account, hosting providers charge a fee for backup solutions. The customers can opt for backup in their local system, which is more economical, but it may result in the huge overload of works. So it is always advisable to entrust the backup management with the hosting company so that the data will remain secure and the customer can always stay at ease.
Some major backup options provided by the hosting companies include backup drives within the server, remote/online backups, cloud backups etc. As the costs are low and redundancy is high, the most preferred option is cloud backups. But cloud backup solutions are not easily available. Hence, the most common alternatives are the remote backups and the internal backup drives. As the backup needs to be purchased along with the plan, the customer needs to spend around 10-15% more than the cost of the hosting plan (varies according to the hosting provider). This dissuades the customer from going for a backup drive. But remember, when a hosting company manages the backup data they can provide daily, weekly or monthly data, which doubly ensures its security.
Hence, the customers should understand that the additional money they spend on VPS or dedicated servers gives them guarantee against the security of their hosting plans. For web oriented businesses like e-commerce and social networking sites, backups play a crucial role. In the absence of backup solutions, hosting providers will find it difficult to provide assistance and so most hosting providers adjust their pricing for the same.
