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Discussion on: Automate daily MySQL and PostgreSQL database backups

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nicolus profile image
Nicolas Bailly • Edited

Hi,
It looks like a nice product, and I could see myself using the free tier for a personal project for the ease of use.

At work though, it would be a tough sell : I already have pretty much the same functionality with Persona Monitoring and Management, which is free, provides a one click restore option, also has a bunch of monitoring options, and is hosted on our servers. Giving DB access to a SaaS platform is a big no no unless it's very reputable and can be thourougly audited.

Here are a few things that I think you should address if you wanted to make it appealing/usable for enterprises :

  • Have an easy restore feature (Maybe it's there but it's not advertised on the site, and a backup only really exist if you can restore it).
  • Provide data at rest encryption for the backups, you mention the credentials are encrypted, but what about the database itself ? There's no way I'm sending my database on an S3 provider unencrypted.
  • Explain what mechanism is used to make the backup and ensure consistency, and maybe even offer a choice ? A simple "mysqldump" can be fine for a pet project, but when you get to a 100GB database it could take hours and you probaby want to copy the files from the filesystem and then use binary logs to retire to a point in time (like what percona Xtra backup does)
  • If you ever want to appeal to large enterprise clients (or clients who deal with sensitive data), you could consider getting ISO27001 or SOC2 certified. It's probably not worth it though.

All in all, I think the free tier and plus tier make sense for hobbyists and freelancers with clients who don't handle sensitive information, but when you start charging $50 a month without storage people are going to expect more features and guarantees.

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gregorip02 profile image
Gregori Piñeres

Hi,

I appreciate you taking the time to read the post and for providing valuable feedback on the product. As a developer, I understand the importance of being cautious when entering database credentials into any third-party software. Therefore, the focus when promoting the product is to clearly highlight the encryption mechanisms implemented.

Regarding future features: restoration, backup encryption and storage for pro level clients are planned in the short term.

This current version of the product is functionally basic. The mechanisms implemented for backups are mysqldump and pg_dump, respectively. The objective is to evaluate its viability and usefulness in the market, also considering open source and self-hosted alternatives. Importantly, in the short term, I do not anticipate having clients with overly large databases. However, if this situation changes, I will have to reconsider the backup methods.