Do you backup to tape? Have your ever tried analysing the risks that are associated with this? First of all, there’s always a chance that the backup will not restore. Tapes deteriorate over time and one bad block can affect the integrity of the whole backup. The other risk is in terms of disclosure. Your backups contain all your sensitive data. If they are not secured they can fall into the wrong hands and used for who know what! Most organisations have an off-site policy for backups, so there’s even more risk that tapes could be compromised.
One thing you can do to mitigate these risks is to approach the whole backup story from a different angle. One option is to backup online over the Internet. There are a few offerings on the market, but if you look at DataDepositBox for example, they offer Secure Online Storage for only $2/GB. Pretty cheap when you consider how secure your data is. Your data is guaranteed and secured against prying eyes. If you’re responsible for your enterprise’s backup strategy, check them out.
Interesting post. I have seen so many cases where doing the daily backup has been so routine and passed down from person to person even to such a state that they put the tape in the drive and don’t even close it because thats how they have been taught. No one checks the tapes until a disaster takes place and by that time its all too late. Hard Disks have become so cheap now a days you can pick up a terabyte for ?600 from Amazon.