This is regarding BQinternet.com

I was thinking of adding some "value added services" to my hosting customers one of them being remote backup.

Some of my questions regarding this are below:

1) Should i offer remote backup as an option for $$ or include it in my price?

2) If i offer to backup clients data -- should i offer backup everyday or say alternate days?

3) What kind of bandwidth usage can i expect for say backing up 3 GB data every day ? -- i do realize i will be backing up only new data

please answer the above questions also any more suggestions or points you have to add to the above are most welcome.

Thanks very much in advance.

Are you talking about backing up the customer's website data or their on-premise data (ie: files off of their computer)?

Only you can answer 1 and 2. It depends solely on your business model and marketing strategy.

If you tranfer 3 GB of files, it uses 3 GB of data transfer.

--Tina

interactive:

its only customers website data that i will be backing up

IMHO you should be performing remote backups already.

Hardware fails. Customers never have proper backups. If your hardware fails and they lose their website, they will pin the blame on you.

IMHO you should be performing remote backups already.

Hardware fails. Customers never have proper backups. If your hardware fails and they lose their website, they will pin the blame on you.

I agree, yet finding a cost/resource effective solution is important. Mearly downloading the files to your own computer is unsatisfactory. I suggest looking to your provider for options.

its silly... even if you say you're not responsible for loss of data or simular in your TOS/AUP you still should have and backup their sites for free. You never know >> you could loose data that could be used in lawful purposes :O.

I just don't agree paying for backups. Unless of course it's ecommerce hosting or something high usage like a dedi or VPS.

I just don't agree paying for backups. Unless of course it's ecommerce hosting or something high usage like a dedi or VPS.

All of our servers are RAID enabled, plus we do daily/weekly off-site backups. In addition to this, we still offer our clients a separate backup solution (both shared and dedicated server clients) at an additional cost. Its just adding another level of redundancy to their hosting, but as a value added service. Nothing wrong with that.

--Tina

We backed up our data when we were hosting - just in case. But if clients wanted a backup, they were charged because it took time.

Consider doing it - it will help to reiterate to your clients that a backup is not normally done. Most people think they just need to upload a site and that's it. If something happens, the hosting company will be responsible. And that is where your definition of hosting company comes into play: do you also register domain names, do you minor code tweaks, etc?

IMHO you should be performing remote backups already.

Hardware fails. Customers never have proper backups. If your hardware fails and they lose their website, they will pin the blame on you.

its silly... even if you say you're not responsible for loss of data or simular in your TOS/AUP you still should have and backup their sites for free. You never know >> you could loose data that could be used in lawful purposes :O.

I just don't agree paying for backups. Unless of course it's ecommerce hosting or something high usage like a dedi or VPS.

That's not what the thread creator asked. You should answer his questions as opposed to telling him how to run his business. It's pretty rude.

If he's selling hosting, then he's selling hosting. If he wants to add backup options, then that's perfectly reasonable. Contrary to your beliefs about 'perfect' hosts, many DON'T actually backup their clients accounts, they just rely on RAID.

What most people don't understand is that properly backing up data and keeping the data secure involves time and resources. Not charging for REAL backup solutions would result in losses for your company. Maybe you guys who "disagree" with paying for backups don't quite understand the concept of a secure backup.

vj135, to answer your questions:

1. Since I do not know how you run things at the moment, or what your overall perspective is, I can only tell you what I would personally do. I would NOT include it in the price, as some people aren't looking to pay for it. Leave it on the side. It should be an option. If they want the extra redundancy (as Tina says), then they'll most likely opt for it.

2. That's up to you. It also depends on how you are going to be backing up the data. I would suggest different options with different prices. Daily, every other day, or weekly. (Once again, those are my personal choices because I backup client's data for free every two weeks.)

3. 3GB of file transfer = 3GB of bandwidth :)

Tina: I agree with what you said in your posts, IMO that's the way to do it.