Back up your backup for WordPress disaster recovery

An illustration representing failover options in WordPress website disaster recovery.

A disaster recovery plan for your website seems like a perfectly reasonable safety net — until that net tears under pressure. Just ask GitLab. In 2017, the popular code repository platform experienced a devastating data loss when an engineer accidentally deleted 300GB of live database content.

The worst part? The backups GitLab thought would save the day were incomplete, leaving the company with a six-hour-old snapshot as its only viable option. A gap of six hours can mean a lot of missing data for a service as popular as GitLab.

Though it happened years ago, this incident is a stark reminder of what could happen. And that even the best-laid disaster recovery plans can fail if they’re not backed up and tested rigorously.

This cautionary tale is especially relevant for WordPress site owners. Having a backup plan isn’t enough. Your backup needs its own backup. As GitLab learned, human error, misconfigurations, or even a small oversight can lead to catastrophic data loss if you rely on just one backup.

So today, we’re discussing why you need to back up your backups and how Kinsta can help you with this necessary redundancy.

Let’s get to it!

Why you should have a disaster recovery plan

Before we discuss why it’s important, let’s define it: a disaster recovery plan is like insurance for your website. You hope you never have to use it, but when disaster strikes, it’s essential. It outlines the steps you need to take to quickly restore operations after an unexpected event, like a cyberattack or human error.

To be clear, this plan is a comprehensive document that details how your site will recover from disruptions. It typically includes information about key assets, who’s responsible for what, a plan of action, and a process to ensure reliable site backups. The goal is to minimize downtime, protect your data, and keep your website running.

But why is it so important?

Consider this: 96% of organizations have experienced at least one outage in the past three years, with many facing multiple disruptions. The cost of downtime can be staggering, averaging around $1,410 per minute, according to the 2022 Data Protection Trends Report published by Veeam. This can be devastating for small businesses, leading to significant revenue loss, customer dissatisfaction, and a long-term hit to your reputation.

Having a solid plan means you’re prepared for anything. And the peace of mind it offers is invaluable, knowing that no matter what comes your way, you’ve got a roadmap to recovery.