Recently Computerworld examined how tape has remained relevant in the enterprise landscape during the past 60 years and where the tape industry is heading. The article points out that big data will play important roles in its future of tape.

“Over the last two years, disk drives have gotten bigger, they’ve gone from 1TB to 3TB, but they haven’t gotten faster,” Mark Lemmons, chief technology officer of Thought Equity Motion, told Computerworld. “They’re more like tape. Meanwhile, tape is going the other direction, it’s getting faster.”

While still shy of collecting Social Security, tape will reach its 60th birthday in May. And like an old dog learning new tricks, the technology is still changing in several ways and will be a major business technology for years to come.

The report said many experts thought low-cost, high-capacity disk drives would bring the end of tape, yet modern tape solutions are providing adopters with enhanced reliability and reduced costs. With advanced tape drives capable of hitting 525MB per second for a price of around $25 per terabyte of capacity, tape remains too beneficial for companies to ignore.

Computerworld said the Ultrium Linear Tape Open (LTO) specification is currently the most popular type of tape in the enterprise sector, as it can achieve up to 32TB per cartridge and lightning fast speeds of up to 1.2GB per second.

New technologies are poised to drive tape adoption. According to the report, big data and the cloud could fuel tape usage because cloud service providers may offer solutions in which some data is stored in on-demand, cloud-based environments and less urgent data is kept on tape drives for long-term posterity. This hybrid approach would give enterprises the advantages of cloud computing while providing the security, reliability and cost-effectiveness of tape.

Despite other backup and storage technology nipping at its heels, tape doesn’t plan on going anywhere. So, a big Happy 60th Birthday to tape.  Long live Tape!

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It’s an unfortunate truth for many companies that disasters can happen. Whether caused by weather occurrences or network outages, there are many more threats that can render critical information inaccessible.

That’s why, according to a recent Information Management report, it’s important that organizations implement, maintain and update data backup strategies on a regular basis. Given the rise of new technologies, options abound when it comes to data backup, but many still choose to focus their strategies on tape.

The report states that data backup and recovery plan needs to clearly state all aspects of the data backup and recovery process. What technologies are you using to protect the various components of your environment? How often do your backups run for specific data sets? Do certain applications need to be real time replicated in order to meet your recovery time objective and recovery point objective ?

Taking all these questions into account will ensure that data is not only backed up properly, but can also be restored in a timely manner. After all, according to Information Management, companies are becoming less tolerant of downtime given their increasing reliance on enterprise data.

For years, companies have relied on tape backup technology to ensure their necessary data is properly stored and readily available should an issue befall their operations. And the effectiveness of tape can be compounded through the use of offsite tape storage services from a trusted partner.

It’s common for organizations – especially small- and medium-sized businesses – to simply back up data to tape and store those copies on site. While this solves part of the data protection problem, it won’t serve as a complete strategy.

For example, the company should think about the implications of a natural disaster. What happens if a hurricane wipes out the building, or it incurs severe flood damage? Backup tapes may be ruined.

But offsite tape vaulting services can prevent such problems. Professionals can work with companies to pickup backup tapes in accordance with their retention schedules and transport them to a secured facility that is designed to protect against Mother Nature and other threats.

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• Plan Now, Worry Less After: Make a Post-Emergency Punch List

World Backup Day recently shined a light on the importance of creating and maintaining up-to-date copies of all your most important information. But while it would be nice to have duplicates of everything as a failsafe, there are logical limits to that strategy. Filing cabinets are eventually filled to capacity and boxes filled with backup tapes seem to be cropping up in every corner of the office. When this happens, initially noble intentions could actually increase the risk of a data disaster.

To keep capacity at a reasonable level, the old must make way for the new. All information stored by an organization has its own unique life cycle, but for the vast majority, there is a definite point at which it has lost its value and is only taking up space. Certainly business contracts, intellectual property portfolios and other essential bits of information must be kept for as long as a company is in operation – and sometimes even longer. But chances are, the backup tapes that store the minutes of a 1985 marketing strategy session probably don’t need to be preserved for posterity.

Considering the potential risk of unintentionally exposing sensitive material, old data can’t just be pushed to the curb on trash day.

“Backups, like anything, have a limited shelf life,” Ars Technica’s Sean Gallagher wrote in his latest column. “Just as you should destroy those old bank statements, pay stubs and other pieces of paper that have your personal data on them, old data needs to be shredded too – virtually or physically.”

Gallagher recounted several tales of data destruction oversights coming back to bite a records manager. In one instance, sensitive data regarding missile research from a defense contractor was discovered on a hard drive that was eventually resold on eBay. In another instance, a state records office forgot to wipe thousands of Social Security numbers off of its drives before selling off its hardware at an annual public auction.

While encryption and diligent overwriting can help guard against the threat of unauthorized eyes viewing sensitive records, physical destruction can eliminate risk beyond any shadow of a doubt. While taking old tapes out to the parking garage and going wild with a hammer can be effective – not to mention fun – it isn’t exactly the most evolved approach. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, more advanced methods like secure media destruction, pulverizing and even melting down disks and tape drives are preferred for larger, more sensitive workloads.

For companies that want to go beyond the paper shredder-and-hammer route to responsible data management, it may be wise to contract the services of a qualified expert. By leveraging a partnership with a qualified information management company, decision-makers will be able to rest assured that old information doesn’t come back to haunt them. And for the eco-friendly executive, it may also provide access to more sustainable destruction processes and even smart recycling programs.

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• World Backup Day: Reflect, Restructure and Relax
• Innovations Keep Tape Storage Relevant Today and Tomorrow
• Where Do You Park Your Backup Data?

A bit of history

Although World Backup Day is now getting increased attention and press from the highest levels, it actually began as a grassroots movement. Its origins can be traced back to social news website Reddit, where one user submitted the simple but powerful idea of establishing one day where people remember to check how and where there data is backed up. After the concept gained momentum in the world of online forums, it was decided that it would be best to hold any events the day before April Fools Day, to emphasize how silly it would be to let your information go unprotected.

What does this mean to your business?

Considering how valuable corporate data is in the emerging knowledge-based economy, can you really afford to leave the fate of files and folders in the hands of just one technology? According to World Backup Day organizers, the failure rate of a three-year-old hard drive is 6 percent. Just imagine if one of out every 16 computers in your office crashed tomorrow. What would be lost? How would you get information back?

If your strategic advisors aren’t asking these questions internally, chances are compliance auditors will eventually make inquiries of their own. From customer credit card numbers to employee health insurance plans, regulators and stakeholders want to know that information is being kept safe. A large part of that equation, of course, is contingency planning. If one hard drive or one employee fails to perform accordingly, you’re going to want a backup copy of that information to limit the potential damage.

A time to reflect

Some of you answered the questions above without a second thought. Others may still be wondering who they have to call or email to find the solution. In any case, World Backup Day can and should serve as an opportunity to reflect upon the current state of your data backup and recovery framework.

Perhaps the best way to begin this process is by categorizing all the different types of data you manage. It may seem like a cumbersome task at first, but it will be an important one. This will help you prioritize your efforts to check on the status of the most sensitive information first. For example, you’ll want to ensure there are backup copies of your research and development team’s trade secrets before worrying about the latest updates to your company’s dress code.

Instead of simply turning this stage into a cursory checklist, it may be better to put your current systems to the test. Ask your department heads what information is most important to them, and send your records managers to go find it. You may think you know where the backup tapes in question are located, but a three-hour expedition into the archives might tell you something different.

Restructuring your strategy

While some companies will be pleasantly surprised by their World Backup Day internal assessments, even the best of us have room for improvement. To begin, companies need to address any records management vulnerabilities identified in their initial reflection. If you don’t have a backup copy of a file or folder, there’s a good chance its contents could be lost forever when disaster strikes. And if you don’t know exactly where those backups are located, you could lose a significant amount of time and productivity in the recovery process.

Hopefully you are among the majority of experienced corporate records managers that have the basics covered. But once this is settled, you’ll still have to look toward future sustainability and see if there is any room to boost efficiency.

Considering the massive data growth being observed by most industries, a couple quick calculations could reveal that your current archiving strategy will be stretched beyond capacity within the next 18 months. Will you need to expand your data center or add a satellite office to account for this growth? Or could an outsourcing vendor lighten the load with offsite data storage services? Asking these questions early can help you conserve resources in the future and choose the correct path when it counts.

Kick back and relax

There’s a certain peace of mind that can only be realized by the records manager that knows his or her data backup and recovery plan is rock solid. And considering all the diligent analysis and planning conducted around World Backup Day, I’d say you’ve earned the right to enjoy a little rest and relaxation. Just don’t get too cocky. As you know, information management is a quickly evolving game and there is always a new market development or organizational challenge emerging to test your talents.

Over time, companies around the globe have relied on offsite tape storage as a security blanket to protect confidential and mission-critical information. The technology has more than proven its worth, and continues to do so through innovation and by continually demonstrating data protection and recovery successes.

Lauren Whitehouse, a data management industry analyst with 20 years’ experience is one expert who’s got tape’s back.  Lauren recently spoke with TechTarget about the role of offsite tape vaulting and was kind enough to mention Iron Mountain as a leader in the field.

According to the expert, not only is tape an important technology today, it will continue to serve a purpose moving forward, despite the continued onslaught from critics and rise of cloud computing. Many companies, she said, are teaching an old dog new tricks when it comes to backing up and safeguarding enterprise information.

“The tape drive manufacturers are continuing to drive innovation with their technology to speed up the performance of tape drives and, in addition, increase the capacity that can be held on tape media,” Whitehouse told TechTarget.

What that translates to, she said, is the need for less investment on the part of companies looking to protect data.

“So, today, you would require a lot less tape cartridges than you would in the past for maybe the same backup set, which makes it easier when you’re talking about backup and recovery and not have to do a lot of tape handling,” Whitehouse added.

Of course, where there’s tape there will always be a partner organization to store and secure them. Well, at least there should be. The expert said working with an information management company to hash out an agreement on services that benefits both sides is always needed.

They say you can’t stop the haters from hating, but there’s nothing wrong with correcting them every once in a while.

For example, Enterprise Strategy Group demonstrated that the notion tape will soon be extinct is untrue. According to the organization, tape’s lead in the backup sector is actually expected to increase during the next several years, experiencing 45 percent annual growth through 2015.

To quote Whitehouse, tape “is not going away.”

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• Stylish vs. Reliable: The Age-Old Debate in Data Backup and Recovery
• Where Do You Park Your Backup Data?
• The Cloud: Part of Your Enterprise Backup Team?
• Data Backup and Recovery Is Now a Balancing Act
• Is a Cloud-Based Data Storage Service on Your Company’s Horizon?
• The Cloud: Will It Rise to the Occasion When You Need It Most?

New England Head Coach Bill Belichick, Source: Wikimedia Commons

There’s a reason that all of the major sports leagues have an exhibition season. Sure it’s long, boring and gives you a better idea of your team’s third-string than it does the starters, but the preseason is a necessary evil. Even world-class athletes need a bit of practice to knock off the rust and get into what they like to call “game shape” before jumping back into the fire.In the enterprise world – where competition is no less stiff than in the National Football League – the same can be said of your data backup and disaster recovery (DR) strategies. Practice makes perfect.

Backup and DR are two processes that all companies should have plans for and practice on a regular basis. After all, you can’t expect to implement the strategies and once and expect them to effective. DR is not one-size-fits-all – far from it, as a matter of fact. It takes constant attention and tweaking in order to protect the organization as much as possible.

To help you and other companies accomplish this, a recent PCWorld report addressed numerous tips and steps that can be taken.

1. Clearly define practice/test objectives

Practicing just for the sake of it will do you little good, the report stated. Instead, the company should outline a number of objectives and benchmarks it would like to accomplish with a test or audit of the recovery system.

2. Develop a risk scenario

A hallmark of NFL coaching great Bill Belichick is his view on situational practice. Each day the coach runs his New England Patriots through various situations to better prepare them for game day. You can do the same with DR, according to PCWorld. Before a practice run, develop a realistic disaster situation that the company is likely to face.

3. Vary tests between technical and walk-throughs

Going back to football, there’s generally one day a week a team will take off the pads and conduct a simple walk-through – usually a light refresher of the gameplan the day before. In terms of DR, you should be sure to vary your own practice sessions between technical tests and walk-throughs to uphold training, awareness, and preparedness, the report said.

4. Learn from past mistakes

What good is practice if you learning nothing from it? With each test that you run – and even with real-life disasters the company may face – be sure you learn from it, both the good and the bad. Make notes of practices that made the process quicker and more efficient, and even record utter failures. Both with help you improve for the next test – be it real or simulated.

5. Report the results

The last thing you should be doing is keeping the results of a test under wraps. Good or bad, it’s important that all stakeholders involved in DR are aware of how the process went. And just as various areas of the business should be involved in the DR strategy as well as running the test, all should be informed of the results. It could help them better prepare how they backup and protect data.

How a company goes about data protection will really depend on several areas – sensitivity of the information, industry and other specific needs. However, a recent CIO magazine report identified a general formula that all companies can follow. Among the more important areas are use of advanced solutions, investment prioritization and use of offsite data storage.

Then I parked there after having my car detailed, and, predictably, the local bird population…well, you know where this is going. Needless to say, I park in the driveway now.

Talk about a trigger event, huh? Even when we can anticipate the potential consequences of certain actions, sometimes we need a dramatic occurrence to shake us out of our routines.

I had this thought while reviewing the results of our Data Backup and Recovery Benchmark Survey – specifically, the question about storing and securing backup data. It was surprising to see that 48 percent of responders store their backup data onsite utilizing tape and/or disk. I’m going to assume few in this group have experienced a trigger event, such as a natural disaster – otherwise, they might have thought twice about keeping their backups in-house.

What about you? Where are you storing your backup data?

Are you moving it offsite? Or, are you tempting fate by keeping backups on your premises? Check out the full Data Backup and Recovery Benchmark Survey to see how your answers match up with your peers’.

And remember: Stay away from those shady spots!

• Five Tips for Better Data Management and Recovery Practices
• Data Backup Windows Are So Cliché
• Captain Obvious Asks: “What are Your Top Data Management Challenges?

We can post our high scores in the comments below.

Seriously, though, we’re all guilty of relying on clichés to get our point across. Even so, I’ve found that it can be illuminating to really unpack a turn of phrase and get at the meaning behind the words.

Take this one, for example: “Success is in the eye of the beholder.” It came to mind when I saw that nearly 70 percent of responders to our Data Backup and Recovery Benchmark Survey were able to consistently meet their data backup windows.

At first glance, the statistic seems pretty cut and dry (three points!), but it takes on some ambiguity when you realize that each organization’s definition of success is likely unique. For example, one company might have an easy-to-hit backup window of 48 hours over a weekend, while another may have a shorter window, but has to endure performance hiccups while the data is backed up.

How do you define success when it comes to your data backup windows?

An easy way to know if you’re part of the 70 percent is to take our short Data Backup and Recovery Benchmark Survey and see how your responses compare to those of your peers.

Give it a go at www.ironmountain.com/databackupreport – it’s a no-brainer (two points)!

Do you have questions about data backup and recovery? Read additional Knowledge Center stories on this subject, or contact Iron Mountain’s Data Backup and Recovery team. You’ll be connected with a knowledgeable product and services specialist who can address your specific challenges.

• Remote Data Centers: What’s the Missing Link?
• Goodbye for Now: The Joys of Secure Backup Tape Transport
• How to Select a Standout Data Backup Partner
• Vanquishing the Data-Backup Resources Crunch
• Tape Exchanges and Vaulting: A Dynamic Duo for Your Backup Plan

Over the last few months, I have been meeting with many Iron Mountain customers (and potential customers) to find out how we can add value more for them. The same things have come up time and time again – companies need to make their backup operations more reliable, more efficient, and more cost-effective. For good reason, companies continue to favor tape for backup because it is proven technology, it is safely offline, and it is inexpensive.

But how can you make tape backup even better? There are lots of interesting ways to improve the backup process. Let me share some thoughts on one particular scenario…

As more and more companies move IT infrastructure to colocation facilities or remote data centers, they are discovering that they can almost run “lights out” – but not quite. Often, they must still send a highly-skilled IT professional to the remote site to exchange their backup tapes. Now, this is an extremely important action, but it’s not usually the best use of strategic IT time, especially because the remote site could be a 30-mile drive from headquarters! So how can these companies continue to enjoy all the benefits of tape, without incurring the overhead of swapping tapes in and out?

Well, the simple answer is to have someone else swap the tapes for you! You’ll almost certainly save time and money, and your operations will be easier to manage. But you need the right partner – tapes are full of sensitive, valuable information, and you need to work with someone you can trust. Has your partner rigorously screened the employees who will be accessing your facilities? Will they also store your media in secure offsite vaults? Can they guarantee a tight chain of custody?

Enter Iron Mountain BackupCare™. With BackupCare, our transportation service specialists actually enter your colocation space or remote data center themselves and handle your tape exchanges. We’ll scan the tapes we pull and email you the tape numbers, so chain of custody will be as tight as ever. We’ll vault your tapes in our secure, climate-controlled vaults until they are ready to be rotated back to you (and of course, we’ll do that exchange, too).

Thanks for your time today – if you have any questions or comments, just let me know. I look forward to partnering with you!

Do you have questions about data backup and recovery? Read additional Knowledge Center stories on this subject, or contact Iron Mountain’s Data Backup and Recovery team. You’ll be connected with a knowledgeable product and services specialist who can address your specific challenges.

Related Links:

• Remote Data Centers: What’s the Missing Link?
• Goodbye for Now: The Joys of Secure Backup Tape Transport
• How to Select a Standout Data Backup Partner
• Vanquishing the Data-Backup Resources Crunch
• Tape Exchanges and Vaulting: A Dynamic Duo for Your Backup Plan

I can almost hear you saying, “Thanks for the news flash, Captain Obvious!”

These days, it seems like you can’t go a week without hearing about severe weather decimating an office building or a security breach compromising some company’s data. So it stands to reason that data and disaster recovery continue to be top-of-mind concerns for many businesses. It may not be shocking news, but results from our recent Data Backup and Recovery Benchmark Survey show that the trend continues.

How does that jive with your own data backup and recovery practices? Are you dealing with similar challenges, or are issues like data availability or mailbox storage growth keeping you up at night?

Take Our Survey, and See Where You Stand

Well, the great thing about taking our five-minute Data Backup and Recovery Benchmark Survey is that you can easily see where you stand among your peers with a customized report that reflects your responses. Better yet, you’ll get recommendations from Iron Mountain experts on how to overcome your challenges.

Check it out at http://www.ironmountain.com/databackupreport, and tell ‘em Captain Obvious sent you!

Related Links:

• Remote Data Centers: What’s the Missing Link?
• Goodbye for Now: The Joys of Secure Backup Tape Transport
• How to Select a Standout Data Backup Partner
• Vanquishing the Data-Backup Resources Crunch
• Tape Exchanges and Vaulting: A Dynamic Duo for Your Backup Plan