We create backups before applying ANY updates!
Before Richweb performs any updates we will ALWAYS perform a manual backup of your website. This ensures that in the unfortunate case that an applied update "breaks" your website we can easily and swiftly restore it to it's original state with minimum downtime.
How long will my site be down?
Typically, an update will require 15 minutes to complete with roughly 5 minutes of downtime and 10 minutes of post-update auditing for theme and plugin issues. Depending on the size and complexity of your website however, this time-frame may increase. In addition, if your website is utilizing a customized theme or plugin that has an available update then the time-frame will further increase! This is due to the fact that any customized code would need to be re-applied post-update and analyzed for any potential compatibility issues with the updated code base.
Plugin And Theme Licenses
This is always a tricky situation, since we don't want you to have to pay for anything more than you already have. Some plugins and themes require licenses. Unless you have a perpetual license (one that doesn't expire), we may not be able to update that theme or plugin unless we re-subscribe for another update. If we notice this is the case, we will advise you immediately. We can either find an alternative plugin/theme (free or paid), remove that item (may cause additional work or lost of content/functionality) or purchase the updated theme/plugin on your behalf and pass the cost along to you.
Why Are Updates Required Frequently?
The developers of WordPress as well as many of the theme and plugin developers work exceptionally hard to ensure that their products are safe and secure. To that end, these developers are constantly testing for vulnerablities and releasing "patches" swiftly to resolve any that are identified. They also tend to actively support their products which includes "bug" fixes as well as new features. For these reasons alone Richweb schedules 1 week per month to apply any updates that are available as a part of our WeCare support packages.
Additional Security Measures?
Richweb employs and enforces a policy for all WordPress installations that we host in that we require the installation and use of our proprietary "RW Lockdown" plugin. In short, this plugin communicates with the hosting server and allows administrators to "lock" and "unlock" the installation on a file system ownership and permissions basis. This means that when a website is "locked" then no edits, deletions, or installations of any files are allowed. This prevents the uploading of new themes, plugins, or other potentially malicious files and effectively stops 99% of SQL Injection and Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. That being said, a "locked" state does not prevent administrators from updating pages, posts, or images as these elements are either stored in the database or in the uploads directory which is not "locked" but is set to not execute any executable file types. Please do be aware, that this plugin will NOT work on any server that is NOT a Richweb server, since it interfaces with a server-side daemon that is unique to our servers.
In Closing
If you have any questions, again, please let us know. We're here to help you and to protect your website.
Thanks!