When you begin to operate your dedicated server, you will most likely have the option to configure how often back-ups are performed on your server. It is very important to have a back-up of your site, especially if you are running a site that collects customer data or a site that has a forum or community application.

For busy sites, a daily back-up is essential. This back-up will contain all of the data that was processed or inputted to your site for a 24 hour period. If you have a problem on your site, but you use a daily back-up, the chances of you losing your data are very small. You may lose a portion, but it is a lot better than losing absolutely everything on your site.

Resellers should provide daily back-ups for all of their customers, to ensure that their customers will not lose any of their data. Even if it is the customer’s fault that their site’s data was corrupted, it is good customer service to have a back-up ready for them. You can also instruct your clients to perform their own back-ups of their sites if they are worried about data loss.

Small sites that don’t receive much traffic can still benefit from using a back-up system. In this case, a weekly back-up should be sufficient, but even a daily back-up cannot hurt if you update your site frequently.