<How sure are you that the backup tapes are not currently the record
archive strategy?>
Many do, although they don't think of it as an "archive strategy" but
more of a "just in case."  I have some concerns with using backup tapes
as archives.  1) The backup tape technology changes quite often.  We
have tapes from 2 years ago that we cannot access because we no longer
have the drives to do so.  Not being a technical expert (and not having
stayed at Holiday Inn Express in a number of years) I may not be aware
of some generic solution to this.  2) Isolating just those records that
are long-term or permanent is extremely difficult when backing up a
server.  To use the tapes as archives would mean keeping everything on
the tapes which poses its own difficulties for legal purposes or even
the time necessary to find only one or two records amongst the whole.
3) Magnetic tape has about an 8 year life span (under stringent storage
and handling conditions) before data starts getting out of control.
Don't know the technical terms - but bits and bytes start "letting go"
and are no longer available. 

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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