[jgeorge]

Rage level depends on what you're paying for. I have a server at Rackspace, it's my job to ensure backups, not theirs. That's the service level I pay for. They offer a backup service through Cloud Files that puts your backup on a different server. About once a month (which is all I need for the little usage my server gets) I log in, click the button to do a Cloud Files backup, and I'm done. Costs me about 60 cents a month for the file storage, pretty cheap for an off-server backup. If the server holding my instance fails, it's a couple of clicks and about 10min to restore it back.

I hate it for anyone who loses data, but if you're not paying them for a backup service, it's an expensive lesson to learn.