Planning for the site being unavailable.
THE QUESTIONS
What does the business lose per day if the website is down What if email is down How long could you operate without either What would you do in the meantime
FOR MOST SMALL BUSINESSES
A few hours offline is inconvenient. A week is serious. Loss of data is worse than loss of availability.
That implies: good backups matter more than redundancy.
PRACTICAL MEASURES
Off-server backups you can restore elsewhere
An alternative way for customers to reach you: a phone number, a social account, a messaging channel
Contact details not dependent on the hosted domain Knowing who to call
FOR EMAIL SPECIFICALLY
If your email is on the hosted domain and that hosting fails, you cannot receive anything, including our notices.
A secondary contact address elsewhere is a small precaution with disproportionate value.
WHAT NOT TO OVER-ENGINEER
Redundant servers and failover arrangements are expensive and complex. For most small businesses, reliable backups and a tested restore procedure are proportionate.
REVIEWING
Annually, alongside your backup review.
