Backups are obviously a crucial component in any enterprise application.  Modern internet components are prone to failure, and backups keep your bases covered.  Here’s what you should consider:

1. Is your database backed up, including object structures, data, stored procedures, grants, and logins?
2. Is your webserver doc-root backed up?
3. Is your application source code in version control and backed up?
4. Are your server configurations backed up?  Relevant config files might include those for apache, mysql, memcache, php, email (postfix or qmail), tomcat, Java solr or any other software your application requires.
5. Are your cron or supporting scripts and jobs backed up?
6. Have you tested all of these components and your overall documentation with a fire drill?  This is the proof that you’ve really covered all the angles.

If you do your backups right, you should be able to restore without a problem.

Sean Hull asks on Quora – What are backups and why are they important?

Related posts:

1. What is disaster recovery and why is it important?
2. Cloud Computing – What is it and why is it important?
3. Backup and Recovery in EC2 – 5 Point Checklist
4. Cloud Computing – Disciplined Deployments
5. Auto-scaling – What is it and why is it important?