Networker

Re: [Networker] long term retention of data and old hardware

2011-02-19 08:27:16
Subject: Re: [Networker] long term retention of data and old hardware
From: "Macina, Conrad" <Conrad.Macina AT PFIZER DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:25:13 -0500
Both of you are 100% correct. Dave's statement was, "Our regulatory
requirements are to keep some of our *DATA* upwards of 30 years
[emphasis mine]," the key word is "data," not "tapes." There's no
requirement to retain tapes for long periods of time. You only need to
retain data. While tape is a very good medium for backups, it is highly
subject to temperature and humidity fluctuations and as Terry points out
tends to break down over time. One industry analyst estimates that 18%
of backup tapes can't be read after two years.

Think back just fifteen or so years ago (half of Dave's regulatory
requirement), when the state of the art in tape was DDS and QIC and LTO
stood for "Lunar Transfer Orbit." What if you had to restore one of
those tapes today? Would you have the hardware? Would it still be
functional? And even if the tapes and drives were good, would you have
software capable of reading them? NetWorker was a very small player a
decade and a half ago. And why do you expect fifteen years from now to
be much more like today than today is like fifteen years ago?

The major point here is that there's a difference between backups and
archives, and companies ignore that difference at their peril.

I'm not recommending any specific archiving product. There are many, and
you have to decide for yourself which one best fits your specific needs
and budget. But using your backup infrastructure for archiving is
guaranteed to cause problems down the road.

Just my two cents.

Conrad Macina
Pfizer, Inc.





-----Original Message-----
From: terry.lemons AT EMC DOT COM [mailto:terry.lemons AT EMC DOT COM] 
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: long term retention of data and old hardware

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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