focusflarenetwork
Need more info on the infrastructure to make a proper suggestion.
Do you use virtualisation or bare metal? If you use virtualisation just backup the entire VM (This is what I do).
There is an option to backup just the database within ITFlow Administration pages.
For updates, personally I tend to wait a few days after a major release in case of bugs for bare metal or create a snapshot in my hypervisor first so I can easily roll it back if needed.