Backup Retention Policy

A backup retention policy defines how long website backup copies are kept, how many versions remain available, and when older copies are deleted. A cleaning company's website might need recent backups for quick recovery and selected older versions for problems discovered later. Keeping every copy forever can increase storage costs and expose unnecessary historical data; keeping too few can make recovery harder. The policy is separate from creating a backup and from restoring one. It should consider how frequently the site changes, what the backups contain, where they are secured, and any business, contractual, or legal retention requirements. Periodically testing restoration is as important as having a retention schedule.