Stuff Happens. . .

[Griff Grumbein]

How many endless hours have you spent working on your site, trying to get it just right and performing at it's peak? What if it all just disappeared. . .POOF. . .GONE!?!

I was reading the laments of a member in another forum I frequent about how his host's server completely and totally crashed and the person lost EVERYTHING! The host had no warnings that the server was going to fail and did not have the opportunity to back up the latest data prior to the crash, and apparently the member had made MANY changes to his site just prior to the server's failure.

While the member didn't come right out and blame the host, it was implied that the host should have had a more recent back up than they did, and three days worth of changes had been lost. The member was a bit upset that no backup was available from the host, and I found myself thinking "Wait a minute! Who's site is it anyway? Who's responsibility is it to ensure there is a contingency plan?"

Do you blame the grocery store when you run out of *insert item of choice here*? No, you knew you were running low, but didn't back up your pantry/'fridge with reserves. You don't plan on driving across the country in your car and not have a spare tire with you just in case, do you? (You see where I'm going with this, don't you?)

Well folks, the final answer on who is responsible for backing up your hard, time consuming, labored on data is YOU! Your (reputable) host does everything in their power to keep their servers on line and performing at their peak, but STUFF HAPPENS! It's their responsibility to do everything they can to keep THEIR SERVICE up and running, it is YOUR responsibility to plan for the worst and be able to ACT IF it happens, not REACT WHEN it does!

Anyone who has been using a computer for any length of time knows that PC's are not infallible and have probably lost data when the PC hiccupped. Smart users save often to avoid massive data loss. If they would save that annual holiday letter they were drafting to send to all the relatives this year, why wouldn't they save their web site data?

Today's society is one that likes to blame someone else for their own lack of foresight. Look at some of the ridiculous lawsuits that are in the headlines. Without getting on the soap box here, it's not the fast-food joint's fault that someone put that piping hot coffee between their legs instead of in a cup holder, then got scalded when something caused it to spill.

Likewise, it is NOT the host's fault that this member DID NOT PLAN for that catastrophe! It's YOUR site, YOUR business, YOUR future, and it's YOUR job to make sure you've planned for it appropriately.

When was the last time you performed your scheduled backup of everything? What? You don't perform regularly scheduled backups!?!

Perhaps it's time you started. . .the next server that crashes without warning may be yours!

[Rosalind Gardner]

Hey Griff,

You are SO right... and right now I'm looking at a total failure of the SAH Club. For some reason all the email addresses and passwords were changed to one value and do you think I had a backup?

AAAAAAAAARGH!

Working feverishly to restore...

Ros

[Griff Grumbein]

OUCH!

Sorry to hear about that, Ros! It's a hard lesson to learn (don't ask me how I know ).

For the rest of you, here are a couple (what I consider) nuggets of wisdom I have gleaned in my experience.

When I graduated high school and went to boot camp for Marine Corps, one of the first things they instilled in our "grapes" (shaved heads) was the "6-P Principle" (Prior Planning Prevents P*ss Poor Performance). Not only would our individual actions affect what happened to ourselves, our failure to plan our actions could result in the loss of the lives of our unit. I found this "principle" was easily and gainfully applied to ALL aspects of life, and it applies to my IM efforts just as well.

After being honorably discharged for medical reasons, I had the privilege of being hired as part of the core group for what is now the number one name in refrigerated boxes in the world to help them set up and establish their facility in NC. One of the reasons they are so successful is because of their mindset toward a quality product and customer service. As it is a manufacturing facility, there are extremely high quality standards and extremely high tempo production schedules that must be made. What sets them apart from the others in the field is what we instilled in every employee that was hired. The gist of it boils down to this:

EVERYONE ELSE will make time to correct what was done wrong the first time, but WE will MAKE the time required to do it right the FIRST time. Easy to say, but just as easy to ignore when the pressure is on. However if you look at it from a production stand point (and relate it to how you operate your business) the logic is infallible: for every piece that is made wrong, it costs the company the price of THREE! That's right, THREE. The one you made wrong in the first place that must be thrown out, the one you COULDN'T make because you were REMAKING the first one, and the remade piece to replace the first one you screwed up.

Now take all this and apply it to how you run YOUR operation. OK, it may take just a little longer to do it right the first time, but the correct end result is ALWAYS worth the little extra time and effort put into it the first go-round. Your business will be better for it, and your customers will come flocking.

Just ask Bally Refrigerated Boxes, they'll tell you.

[fiatlux5762]

It is surprising that the web hosting provider didn't have a backup within the past 24 hours. They usually will provide the backup data for a small (e.g., $50 or less) fee. However, when all is said and done the web hosting service user is ultimately responsible for data loss prevention. Why were live updates being made to the production server anyway? A better process is to make updates to a development platform (such as your laptop computer) and then uploaded that to the server. This automatically insures that a backup of the most current data is always available AND should also insure that the data and presentation is correct during your review process before being placed online! A good rule to follow is "never make online changes to an operational server!" Your updates should be uploaded.

If the web pages are running on a Unix server ask the provider to enable a Cron script to do daily backups at say midnight. Even then you will need to download the compressed backup files to a second platform to make sure you can restore the site should the provider go out of business or just otherwise loose data.

Cheers,
Jason

[Griff Grumbein]

I agree completely with off-line revisions then upload, and maybe about the host's responsibility for back-ups to some extent. Of course I didn't get to hear the host's side of the story, so all I can go on is the customer's posted information, which is what prompted my post (and there's usually more to it than what is posted in cases like that).

IMO, I still feel responsible for my own business, therefore I can't blame anyone else if I haven't done all I can to avoid potential disasters and even then, stuff happens. . .