How MIDAS backs up your data
This article outlines the various ways in which MIDAS ensures that your data is regularly backed-up.Firstly, every MIDAS booking systems can be configured to automatically backup its database(s) upon the first successful sign-in each day.
These automated backups are encrypted where possible and stored on the same server as the MIDAS system for a definable period of time of up to 30 days. Additionally, these automated backups can also be emailed to a defined email address. This allows you to retain a copy of the backup separate and "off server" to your live MIDAS server.
The ability to have your MIDAS system send database backups to an email address is useful for disaster recovery planning. It means that even in the event of a catastrophic server failure where you loose all data on your server, you'd still have a backup of your data in your email inbox. This could then be restored to a fresh install of MIDAS on a new server.
In addition to the automated backups which MIDAS generates, administrators may also generate instant backups at any time via MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Database → Backup Now.
Backups stored on the server - whether automatically or manually generated - can be quickly restored directly from within the administrative user interface. When restoring from a database backup, you can selectively restore data or perform a full restore back to the point in time that the database backup was created.
The above backup features are available as standard in every MIDAS system, including both self and cloud hosted editions.
Additional cloud-hosted backups
If you choose a cloud-hosted edition of MIDAS, we host your booking system on our infrastructure. To complement the database backup features outlined above, there are a range of other backups that we perform transparently in the background to add additional levels of protection to your important MIDAS data. These include...Real-Time Database Backups
We replicate (sync) in real-time databases from our 'live' customer servers to backup servers. These backup servers are for use by customers who add the additional optional "Emergency Access" addon to their cloud-hosted MIDAS systems. Our backup servers are located in a different data center in a separate geographic location and are with a different hosting provider.Snapshots every 8 hours
Three times a day we generate full backups of all cloud-hosted customer's databases. These are then securely transferred off-server to two remote locations (which differ from the customer backup servers described above). These backups are automatically overwritten every 24 hours - so we retain each one for a 24 hour period before it is automatically replaced with a fresh backup.Daily backups
We also take a full backup of all cloud-hosted customer's databases once per day. These are stored off-server and retained for a period of six months, in accordance with our Data Retention Policy.Disaster Recovery (Cloud Hosted Customers)
In the event of a catastrophic server/hardware failure resulting in data loss, we would be able to restore our cloud-hosted customer's MIDAS systems from one or more of the various backup mechanisms outlined above. Essentially, this would then put a customer's MIDAS system back to a point in time that would be at most 24 hours since the last changes in their system.The timescale to restore a customer's MIDAS system and corresponding data would depend upon the extent of the server/hardware failure and the number of other customer's MIDAS systems also impacted. Consequently, we are unable to commit to a definitive timescale for restoration should such an unforseen event occur.
However, we do offer all our cloud-hosted customers an optional 'Emergency Access Addon'. With this addon, a second 'mirror' copy of a customer's MIDAS system runs on a different server (with a different provider, in a different data center). In the unlikely event that an issue prevents the customer from accessing their 'primary' MIDAS system, they will still be able to access a read-only backup MIDAS system.
As such, if maintaining 24/7/365 access to your cloud-hosted booking and resource scheduling information is critical to your operations and business continuity, then for added reassurance, you may wish to consider this addon.
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