Foundation · 2 min
What you need to know
Does an ecommerce store need backups?
Yes. Backups protect the business from deletion, corruption, failed changes and disasters that live replicas may also copy. The plan must cover restoration, not merely storage.
What ecommerce data should be backed up?
Back up orders, customers, products, inventory state, configuration, content and other data that cannot be reliably recreated. Also preserve infrastructure definitions, encryption dependencies and recovery instructions needed to use the data.
How often should ecommerce databases be backed up?
Backup frequency should be driven by the recovery point objective: the maximum acceptable data loss measured in time. High-change order data may need continuous or frequent protection, while replaceable content may need less.
What is point-in-time recovery?
Point-in-time recovery restores a database to a chosen moment within the retained recovery window, often using a base backup plus transaction logs. It helps recover to just before an accidental change or corruption.
Backup vs replication: what’s the difference?
A backup is a recoverable historical copy kept separately; replication maintains another current copy for availability or scale. Replication may copy bad changes immediately, so both can be necessary.
How do I know whether backups actually work?
Restore backups into an isolated environment, verify integrity and business records, start required services and measure recovery time. Monitoring a successful backup job alone is not proof.
How often should backup restoration be tested?
Test restoration on a schedule based on business risk and after major architecture or recovery-process changes. Critical stores should also run broader disaster-recovery exercises, not only file checks.
A quick store check
Restore the latest backup into an isolated environment and record completion time, missing data, failed dependencies and manual steps.
Foundation · 2 min
Frequently asked questions
Is replication a substitute for backup?
No. Replication can copy accidental deletion or corruption, while a backup preserves a recoverable point in time.
Should restore tests use production?
No. Restore into an isolated environment so verification cannot overwrite or expose the live store.