Bad Tapes Part 2: Embracing Purpose
Companies Commonly Confuse Backup Tapes With Data Archives – But They Are Different Types of Data Repositories
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March 28, 2024
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This is part two of a five part report which explores what led to data over-retention on backup tapes, defines the current situation and outlines how to remediate data holdings to reduce ongoing operational costs and regulatory risk. Find out more about this report by reading the introduction or downloading the full Bad Tapes report here.
Using Backup as an Archive Creates More Problems Than It Solves.
Many companies have long confused backups with archives. However, these two types of data repositories are designed for completely different purposes. Backups are meant to help organisations restore their IT systems in the event of an incident or disaster. They’re not intended for long-term storage — in fact, they’re not very good at it. That’s a job for archives!
So — What’s the Difference Between Archives and Backups?
Backup tapes should not be confused with archives — they are different types of data repositories:
- Backups help organisations restore IT systems due to an incident or disaster
- Archives are intended for long-term storage.
Archive | Backup | |
---|---|---|
Purpose | Future reference, regulatory compliance or legal purposes | Restore systems and original data in case it gets damaged |
Age | Historical data | Current data |
Contains | Regulatory and legal hold data only | All production information |
Nature | Usually, the only remaining copy | Multiple data copies |
Access | Easily searchable so files can be quickly located and retrieved if needed for legal or compliance reasons | Ideal for recovering applications or complete systems; not easily searchable, time consuming and expensive to search and access individual files |
Longevity | Designed to store data for lengthy compliance timelines | Designed to support a disaster recovery timeline, measured in days or weeks |
Ask Yourself These Questions:
- Are you using backup tapes as archives?
- Do your backup tapes contain personal information?
- How many backup tapes do you hold?
- What is the oldest backup tap you have?
Published
March 28, 2024
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