Hi Terry,
I agree. Data with long retentions will have to be transcribed.
Data transcription is inevitable because media degrades. It will have to be
done eventually and maybe more than once for the same data. Life expectancy
varies.
But there is more than media degradation to this problem. Something you also
mentioned. The technology may become obsolete and unsupported (I am thinking
of the Networker SCG and HCG).
At some point I will be forced to do the transcription but how to do it and
what I will be doing is not know because I don't know what is to come (and
go) and when.
What technology shall I be using in 10 or 20 years time? (and what media, will
that be? tape, disk, the new crystal in town...? Will I be using the same
cabling and protocols to access media...?) Will I have to put the
transcription process in the equation when considering buying new stuff?
If I agree with a customer, or the government, to keep data for 30 years
shouldn't I know how I would be doing that in 10 years time? I choose a
vendor and I stick with it. Actually moving to a different vendor wouldn't be
an much of an option in real life. Both, EMC and us, know that.
So, what is the responsibility (or commitment) from EMC as a hardware and
software vendor?
If there is a deadline for some imperative technology switch (like the recent
analog to digital) will I be given a fair notice before my media becomes
unsupported ? This is not as simple and cheap as buying a TV...
Will vendors add some features to allow for a smooth transcription and at no
extra cost, or will they take advantage of this situation to sell
more "solutions"? (I am not asking for a free lunch here but as I have
already paid for my backups why should I have to pay again?). If media
degrades that's Nature and I will buy more, but if I cannot transcript
because technology has become obsolete by decree, then that is certainly not
Nature's fault, or is it?
I haven't seen this subject documented on any EMC best practices document.
What is best practice, what is not recommended, what is cost effective, etc.
Maybe someone on this list could provide some good pointers to those
documents, if they exist, please?
jee
On Friday 18 February 2011 20:19:54 terry.lemons AT emc DOT com wrote:
> Hi Dave
>
> Your concerns are spot-on. Another facet to help you lose sleep is that
> the magnetic signal on those tapes degrades every day and, at some point,
> the tape drives will no longer be able to read those tapes. How long it
> takes for that to happen is influenced by many factors, including the
> quality of the media, the quality of the tape drive design, the conditions
> in which the tapes are stored, etc.
>
> So, in addition to needing to move your data off of media before the
> technology isn't supported, you also need to move it before the tapes
> become unreadable.
>
> tl
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU]
> > On Behalf Of Browning, David
> > Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 2:43 PM
> > To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> > Subject: [Networker] long term retention of data and old hardware
> >
> > Just out of curiosity, what is everyone doing in terms of long term
> > retention of data, and still being able to read old tapes?
> >
> >
> >
> > For example, we have thousands of old LTO-2 and LTO-3 tapes. We are
> > looking to upgrade to LTO-5, but then that would mean we can't read our
> > old LTO-2 tapes, unless we keep at least 1, or more, LTO-3 drives.
> > Right now, that really isn't a problem.
> >
> >
> >
> > What happens 5, or 10, years from now, when LTO-3 drives are no longer
> > available for service?
> >
> >
> >
> > Our regulatory requirements are to keep some of our data upwards of 30
> > years, so this question is not going away any time soon.
> >
> >
> >
> > - Dave.
> >
> >
> >
> > David M. Browning Jr.
> >
> > IT Project Coordinator Enterprise Backups and Help Desk
> >
> >
> >
> >
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