I've dealt with HIPPA, FDA, and other legal issues (despite what some people 
seem to think, SOX has no say in this matter). Usually the retention is 7 
years; though if it's a law-suite, and you haven't destroyed the tapes, the 
lawyers will make you re-inventory them and restore everything on them (lesson: 
destroy or re-use your old tapes).  I had one situation were we had to make a 
special e-mail system backup every week and send it directly to the lawyers 
with an infinite retention (that was a big hassle).

I've seen the 7 years be a yearly backup, a monthly backup, and in a few rare 
instances, a weekly backup.  It really depends a lot on what kind of data you 
are dealing with, and the business or area of government you work in.  My 
suggestion, keep the data for a short a period of time that you can while still 
satisfying the needs of the business.  If people come to you and say they need 
to keep some bit of information indefinitely, tell them they had better not 
delete it then.

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