Navigating Offsite Tape Storage for Disaster Recovery

The purpose of offsite tape storage of your backup data is to guarantee business continuity for your company in the case of a disaster, natural or otherwise. Financial firms operating in tornado alleys or hurricane zones, payroll firms on earthquake fault lines, and countless other companies would do well to keep secure records of their data in offsite locations to guarantee their safety in the eventuality that something happens to the main office and original data. Disasters can be as epic as Hurricane Katrina, or as simple as a massive system failure after a hardware upgrade. In either scenario it is important to have regular backups stored in a secure location for easy recovery.

The efficiency of your backup system is measured by comparing your recovery point objective–the most recent period that your data can be reverted to after a massive data loss–versus how much it costs to run the system. Other factors, such as how long it takes to get recovery data back from the archive, are also important for the equation. Many companies aim for a 24 hour recovery point objective, but try to cut costs associated with offsite tape storage by only archiving weekly tapes and holding onto the daily copies. This can save a business a fair amount of money, but it leaves it open to losing a week worth of data if the on-site tapes are compromised. As a result the companies that can afford it often opt for daily pick-ups of their backup tapes.

Daily data pick-ups are optimal for disaster recovery purposes, but can be difficult from an operational perspective. Aside from costs, it can take a fair amount of time to actually receive a recovery tape from the archive. As such it is wise to also keep a duplicate copy in house at all times to minimize the cost and the hassle of requesting a recovery. It is also important to remember to send your tapes to an archive that is geographically distant from your office location in order to reduce the probability that any disaster that hits your office will impact the archive as well.

A good disaster recovery plan can have your data up and working again in a short period of time with minimal lost data, but it can also be costly and difficult. Balancing this out is a tricky task, but it can be done by a savvy company. Learn the best practices and your business will be much better off for it.