The Screenshot-Based Backup Strategy
Description
A screenshot of a tweet from the account 'Dev meme' (@devs_memes), which has a drooling rage comic face as its profile picture. The tweet, posted on August 29, 2019, displays a short, horrifying dialogue formatted with dashes. The conversation goes: '- Do you have DB backups?', followed by the reply '- No, only screenshots'. The next question is '- Maybe snapshots?', which is met with a simple '- No'. This meme highlights a comically absurd and dangerously inadequate approach to data management. The humor is aimed at developers, SREs, and database administrators who understand the critical difference between a binary backup or a file system snapshot and a simple, non-recoverable screenshot. It evokes the terror of discovering a critical system has no viable disaster recovery plan, a scenario that is both a running joke and a real-world nightmare in the tech industry
Comments
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Our data recovery plan is based on the Schrödinger's backup principle: we simultaneously have and don't have backups until a restore is attempted
At this point their recovery plan is basically, ‘zoom in and enhance the schema.’
This is the same client who insisted their Excel spreadsheet with 50,000 rows was "enterprise-ready" and wondered why we needed a real database in the first place
When asked about their disaster recovery plan, the junior DBA confidently explained they had 'full coverage' - turns out they meant their phone's photo gallery was full of production table screenshots. The senior architect's eye twitch became permanent that day, especially after learning they rejected VM snapshots because 'those aren't real photos.'
If your DR plan is “check the screenshots,” your RPO is a JPEG and your RTO is an artist’s impression
Screenshots: achieving infinite RPO by ensuring no data survives beyond the clipboard
Our DR plan uses Cmd+Shift+4 for PITR - RPO measured in pixels, RTO in interns