Good thoughts Richard.

The key to fast restores is making sure you never have to do them.  RAID,
mirroring, etc., all minimize the need.

Another technique that helps is avoiding the creation of very large
volumes.  It's ok to use large disks, but partition them.  The network is
only one piece of the equation during restore.  Being able to get multiple
restore streams working on the problem is also desirable (assuming adequate
network bandwidth).

I wrote a paper a number of years ago detailing the hidden costs of
storage.  The largest cost is backup, somewhere between $1 and $3 per
megabyte per year.  Hard to believe?  Work your own numbers.

Kelly J. Lipp
Storage Solutions Specialists, Inc.
www.storsol.com
lipp AT storsol DOT com
(719)531-5926