Contributing Editorial: Disk-Based Backup Brings An End To Elevator Joy Rides

By Jerome Wendt, DCIG LLC

Anyone who thinks tape is still the right primary target for backup only needs to watch a video on NEC's website that includes a testimonial from Orlando, FL, based TLC Engineering. In this testimonial, TLC shares some of its experiences using tape as its primary target for backup and recovery and the hassles associated with it. The situations that the individuals on the video describe are almost comical but, from past experience, I know that TLC's experiences are more common than not. For instance, the recovery procedures that TLC's network administrators had to go through in order to restore files from tape could include one or more of the following steps:

• If at home, the network administrator had to drive in to work
• Once there, they had to to to their workstation and log into the backup software to locate the file to recover and which tape the file was on
• Retrieve the tape
• Take the elevator to the floor where the tape drive was located (their data center spanned multiple floors in the same building) and insert the tape into the tape drive
• Take the elevator back down to their office
• Recover the file
• Notify the end-user the file was restored and wait until the end-user verified that he or she could read the file
• Get on the elevator again, retrieve the tape and then return it to its original location