Backup Solutions

[Robert Brockway]

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007, Neil Watson wrote:

> I still think that rotating tapes is cheaper and safer than disks.  For

It really depends.  Low end tape technologies are quite unreliable. 
There are even cases of tape head alignment problems that mean that the 
tape can only be read on the tape drive that wrote them.  Too bad if you 
are doing a DR after the tape drive is destroyed along with several major 
systems (afterall it is sitting right next to them).

To get good reliability out of tapes you need to spend a lot of money.

> It is a common for companies to fail in planning for long term data
> recovery.  They pay lip service to laws like SOX by storing tapes off
> site for years.  However, they do not ensure that they have the ability
> to recover that data from tape when the time comes.  Five years from now
> will they be able to read the tape or the Exchange 5.5 data stored on
> it?

Indeed.  DR testing is an essential component of any robust backup regime.

> To this end one needs to create a data retention policy to cover all
> aspects of backup and restore.  What will be backed up?  How long will
> the data be kept?  How will the data be restored to the user the on the
> day before it is officially expired?  Working to that end, if you buy
> another tape drive I suggest you buy two and put one in storage with
> your off site tapes.

Excellent info (with my caveat about head alignment problems in some tape 
technologies).

Cheers,

Rob

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