DropMySite lets you backup your website over the cloud

These days, news about hackers have been making the rounds in the media. No website, not even smallish ones, are immune from their mischief. Take for example Singapore Cars Online, a website dealing with used cars, which was recently violated by a group of Malaysian hackers who called themselves M43L Tro0pers.

The hackers were pissed off that the Malaysian soccer team were defeated by their Singapore rivals. So they left a hate message for Singapore fans. Fortunately for the website owners, their database was left intact. But not all hackers are that benign.

DropMySite hopes to give website owner some insurance for their data. Started recently by John Fearon, who also founded EatAds.com (see interview), the service lets you backup your site over the cloud. Their free basic plan offers 2GB of space, which should be sufficient for startups. 50GB and 100GB plans are also available (full price list here) for mammoth websites.

John started DropMySite out of his own needs. EatAds.com, an outdoor advertising marketplace, experienced a hosting failure which led to lost user generated content. “This was very embarrassing for the business as the data we were collecting was rare and important,” he said.

This led to his desire to backup the website’s data. While existing software were available, John couldn’t find an “elegant” cloud solution that met his requirements. So he decided to build his own and expand it into new business that runs concurrently with EatAds.com.

At the moment, the website looks rather low-frills and no-nonsense; designed to get the job done (which is certainly a good start). After signing up and logging in, users will be asked for their website’s FTP details, and then prompted to schedule a backup. The service then does its magic at the prearranged time. An indicator tells you how much space you have left in your account.

Users would not need to visit DropMySite for a long while, except to check on it or to download the files in an emergency, much like your medical insurance policy (without the hefty premiums).

DropMySite is similar to EVBackup, a service owned by California-based firm DO IT. EVBackup, however, is more expensive then DropMySite (they have no free plan and cost more per GB to use), although they do offer a wider range of features like 20% overage allowance for a week as well as Duplicity and Unix support which caters to the more advanced user. They have a 31-day money back guarantee too, in case you find the service doesn’t meet your needs.

Whatever the case, there’s no harm having some form of backup for your company’s website now, whether it exists in the cloud or on your computer hard disk. Should you cross some enemies with serious hacking skills (or simply live on the wrong side of the Causeway), it might be too late to do anything then.

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