Backup Best Practices

It depends on your requirements and how critical the data is. It will also depend on whether it is a static site or a database backed site which would change almost continuously - depending on useage.

If it is a static site you could probably back up the site somewhere when it is uploaded if it is not already covered in another backup of user's documents.

If it is a database backed site then you could do a nightly dump of the DB and back that up somewhere.

Then you need to decide how long you need that data backed up for.

I back up the database for our web based ticketing system. The system itself is not a problem, in this case it is just the database that I am interested in. This DB dump is placed on a network drive which is backed up according to the schedule for that system.

In the event of a failure I can set up a new web server, install the helpdesk system and import the latest backed up database.

Both periodic and changes saving backups should be done if your data is important and work idle time of the company or server itself is unacceptable

I should have been more specific with my question.  It's a web based application with a backend SQL Server db.  A daily backup of the db is performed, but there is no backup of the web server.  My concern is that if there is no backup of the web server configuration, web pages, virtual directories, etc etc, the recovery time would be seriously affected (if you have to build a new server).  I am looking for an effective process that would ensure availability of up-to-date backup while not creating millions of replicas in tapes.  Perhaps it could be a part of the change management process where any changes to the web server configuration/files would require creating a backup?

Thank you QEMS for your detailed reply.  Ours is a web-based business application, so there are changes from time to time, perhaps every couple of months.  The application itself is fairly small so I think we can consider performing a periodic backup of the relevant drives and also build backup into our change management process.  Thanks again.