No matter what IT project you are creating, you will always need a sandbox for testing and development. If your product has a MySQL database, then you will need to create a database in a development environment.
MySQL
How to Automate MySQL Database Backups to S3
If you have an important database, then you need to make sure to back it up regularly. Preferably, you will make sure this happens automatically. But performing regular backups is only half the battle — you also have to consider where to store them. Saving the backups on the same server where the MySQL Server is installed isn’t safe, because if it crashes, you will lose everything.