It seems as if every small to medium company I encounter relies on some form of automated backups. I'm not sure how many horror stories in the media are necessary to convince people that the only workable backup solution is an automated one. Not only that, but I would say an internal and external (off site) backups would be ideal.

Also, never rely on an external host to perform and validate your backups. If you host website files somewhere, they may or might not get backed up, and the consistency of the files (databases) might not be intact if simple copies are made without proper locking.

I've spent the last couple of days testing and deploying a fully automated backup system which backsup content internally (usb drive), remotely (house of the boss) and also serves itself as a backup for the hundreds of databases. None of these systems should ever require a human to function, however I realize they will only be as good as their creator (me). Therefore any backup plan should also include some level of error detection and warnings.

One good way to do this is to create a new file or touch a file to update its last accessed time stamp. If these do not match on the server and backup system then an email/sms/other type of communication needs to be generated and reviewed. There are a number of reasons that a backup might not work, however, ignoring it and assuming everything is fine is most likely not the best approach. At this moment my system doesn't include any warning, therefore I am giving it some thought and will hopefully find time to add it. Regardless, ensure that your backup system is automatic!