Disasters can happen even to the best of us and just as in real life, a disaster can take place when you’re working on your ColdFusion server hosting project.

Why do you need a recovery plan for your ColdFusion project?

As a programmer there is a great possibility that you have encountered the dreaded “Blue screen of death”. It is when your Windows operating system crashes and whatever file you are working on, is lost. Many an hour have been wasted and if you add up those hours, maybe millions of hours of work have been lost due to such crashes. Although, the blue screen of death isn’t as common as it used to be, why leave your precious work in the hands of chance?

Here are a few things to include in your recovery plan while working on a ColdFusion project…

  • Take regular backups: This may seem obvious when someone mentions it, people on individual machines may not use editors with autosave on. Establish a routine within your organization to ensure that critical backups are taken – at least the source files – at regular intervals. You can even set an alarm to alert everyone.
  • Save your ColdFusion files at multiple cloud locations: With cloud storage services easily available it doesn’t make sense to save all the files locally. In fact, you can have multiple cloud storage accounts just to save your ColdFusion files. You can create batch files to simultaneously upload the work you are doing every hour to different cloud storage accounts.
  • Develop a solid version tracking system: This may seem complicated at the beginning but once everyone gets the hang of it, it will become routine. Don’t overwrite your older files. Save the latest files in new folders, probably naming them based on the current date. This way, if you need to revert to a previous version, you will easily be able to do that.
  • Ensure physical backups: When you’re working on a critical ColdFusion application you don’t want to delay your project in case your hardware gets stolen or is damaged in a fire, or a flood or an earthquake. Always keep backup hardware and store it somewhere safe.

Having a recovery plan for your ColdFusion project doesn’t have to be complicated. It is more about setting a routine.