Backups for VPS and Cloud Servers: The 3-2-1 Rule

Many teams rely on their hosting provider’s snapshots and discover too late that the snapshot was on the same platform that failed, was deleted along with the account, or was never taken.

The 3-2-1 rule

• 3 copies of your data: production plus two backups.
• 2 different storage types or platforms.
• 1 copy off-site — a different provider or location.

A modern addition: make at least one copy immutable or offline, so ransomware or a compromised admin account cannot delete it.

What to back up

1. Databases — with application-consistent dumps, not just disk copies.
2. Application files and uploads.
3. Configuration: web server, firewall rules, cron jobs, certificates.
4. Infrastructure definitions, if you use scripts or templates to build servers.

Choose frequency by data loss tolerance

If losing a day of orders is unacceptable, back up databases hourly or use replication.

Test restores

Restore to a fresh server at least quarterly and time it. That number is your real recovery time.

Managed backups with off-site copies are part of our VPS service. Protect your servers.