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Offsite Backup Exposes Potential Threats of Tape Backup
By Lee Morrell
Tape backup is
notorious for its inadequacy. It is unreliable, as its properties are dependable
on human errors and technologically failures. Tapes are prone to mechanical,
thermal and other kind of physical intervention, which can reduce their quality.
The data
recovery from tapes is only 60%
true, as most information is lost due to the technical disadvantages. Tape
backups can
have slower recovery time than any
other off-site backup driver. The potential threats that tapes can bring to the
extraction of data is stronger than in any types of information containers. So,
the next logical question to be posed here is why should rational businessmen or
data admins depend on the inadequate tape
systems?
Offsite backup is much more reliable, faster
and efficient, in comparison to
the slow and old-fashioned tape backup.
Tapes have a
technical annual failure in score of 1 to 12 percent. Due to this technical
drawback, you should provide more tapes for containing information, as you can
never be sure if they would work or would crack down. The multiple tapes that
you will need for storing all the information will gradually ruin your budget,
that's why tape backup is often more
expensive than offside backup, but it resumes its inadequate and slow working
features nevertheless. The number of tapes that fail from either technical or
administrative mistakes is estimated around 60 %. Just imagine the total budget
for restoring the lost information: it will be enough to make your bankrupt!
But even more
astonishingly, tape backups are still used today in many organizations, which
are storing all their valuable files on mere tapes. The span that tapes are
reliable is about a year: they tend to gradually decay and lose the stored
information. Literally every user has experienced a tape deterioration when
storing some files. Many end users are seriously disappointed when this happens
to them , and start searching for other ways to protect their data. Some
companies acquire daily backup regime, which is time and money consuming.
Although it serves the requirements put by tape backups, it is highly stressing
and can impede the daily regime of the enterprise. Tape backups are likely to
have drawbacks, the same as disk . Using both methods is probably the best way
to have your data protected.
Recovery
procedures in the organizations cost a lot of time and money. You should think
of all the things that can cause a disaster, and try to prevent them. You should
either hire a security specialist, or make sure your network is protected, or
even do both. A disaster recovery planning of a company can be a nerve racking
experience for the new employees. The larger you organization is, the more data
are likely to vanish into thin air (or network gaps). That's' why you should
protect the system mainly from hackers , as well as from your own mistakes in
file storage.
Offsite backup
helps you eliminate the threats posed by ordinary tape backup. You eliminate
manual intervention, thus reducing any possible human mistakes that can occur.
You make everything works in an automatic and simple way, thus saving a lot of
precious time for dealing with other tasks. By automating the entire process,
you save installation failures, technical breaks, or property loss. Tape needs
physical handling, which surely means MISTAKES: people often make mistakes when
dealing with important data.
By computizing the whole storing, you can easily reach the expected results,
rather than shout at your managers and employers for making something wrong.
This whole operation reduces the risks of malfunction up to 20 %: more than a
double off the risky percent in tape backup.
Maybe the one and
only advantage that tape backup has over digital stores, is that it is
removable: it can be moved everywhere, and read everywhere, if you have the
proper technology. This is a plus, though, it may soon become a minus: the
mobility of the tape backups can also lead to someone taking over your
information files. Perhaps it is better if you make an offsite backup.
For further information of
how to store data offsite securely, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk. About the Author Lee Morrell is a specialist backup advisor to small to medium companies
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Some other articles by Lee Morrell | |
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