Key points
- Monitoring must check the important features.
- A backup is useful only if it can be restored.
- Updates are tested before production.
What must be monitored
The availability of the homepage is not enough. Check the form, the login, the payment, the search and the integrations that produce value.
Updates and security
Apply updates through a controlled process, track vulnerabilities and limit administrative access. Certificates, the domain and external services must have owners and alerts.
Backups and recovery
Keep automatic backups in a different location and test the restore. Define how much information you can afford to lose and how quickly the service must be restored.
Continuous improvement
Analyze slow pages, errors, searches and customer questions. Good maintenance includes small improvements that keep the website relevant.
Levels of criticality
Not all websites carry the same risk. A presentation page and a store that processes payments have different needs for monitoring, backups and response time.
Classify features as critical, important and secondary. The form, the payment and the login must be checked more often than an editorial page.
What a maintenance agreement should contain
The document must specify the support schedule, the response time, the responsibilities, the backups, the updates, the reporting and the work billed separately.
Clarify who administers the domain, the hosting, the accounts and the external providers. Access must remain available to the company.
- Monitoring
- Updates
- Tested backups
- Response time
- Periodic report
Prevention instead of intervention
Analyze performance trends, storage, errors and certificate expirations before users are affected. Test the forms and the order flows periodically.
Good maintenance reduces incidents and keeps the website compatible with changes in browsers, services and business needs.
The scenario of a real restore
A backup is not enough if nobody knows the password, the location or the restore order. Simulate losing the application in a separate environment and time the recovery. Verify the database, the files, the configuration and the integrations.
Document how much data can be lost between two backups and who decides to start the restore. For an active store, a few hours of orders can be worth a lot.
A useful monthly report
The report must show availability, incidents, updates, backups, performance and recommendations. A list of technical activities does not say whether the risk decreased or the experience improved.
Tie the recommendations to impact and priority. This lets the company decide what gets fixed immediately and what goes into planned development.
- Availability
- Incidents
- Updates
- Verified backups
- Performance
- Prioritized recommendations
Relevant Webmate resources
Continue with the services and examples directly connected to the topic of this article.
Frequently asked questions
How often are updates applied?
Critical updates are applied quickly, while regular ones follow a planned, tested cycle.
Does hosting include maintenance?
Not automatically. Hosting provides the infrastructure, while maintenance covers the application, the checks and the interventions.
