[vonklaus]

Is 20% of $10 a $1.00?That said, if you have a small application, I would pay DO to pack it up. They have global servers & imaging/snapshots. Your app would prob be good if you can get away with that kind of hosting.

I do believe you can take images and snapshots and download them, so using the api, a user could prob rig up a script to make it refundant if it was mission critical

[cyphar]

I don't think that separating your hosting and backup providers is only necessary for "mission critical" things. If you don't have at least three copies of some data, in at least two distinct physical locations/services then it doesn't exist.

[vonklaus]

I agree. However, practically speaking I was just pointing out that if cost & time are extremely important and you are bootstrapping a $10 webapp, $2 for 2mins may be the right choice for the OP and people like him, with 0-500 users.

I do agree though. If the answer to the question, "if this data disappeared, would I be more than slightly miffed?" Is not, NO! Then dumping the data offsite makes sense.

The most inportant thing (which I, and many other make the mistake of) is not only backing it up-- but testing restore time.

If you have your entire database on AWS long-term tape storage, it may not even serve utility. If you can't restore a backup in the timeframe nec, then it is essentially the same as having no backup at all