On Mar 8, 2005, at 12:02 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> From:    Gerard Nicol <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Temperature Point at which Computer Media Fails
>
> Hugh,
>
> I have worked in data center environments most of my working life. I
> have
> seen tapes thrown, dropped and used as hockey pucks during late shift
> sporting activities.
>
> I have never seen a restore fail due to an IO error.
>

Never??  NEVER???

This is similar bravado to the comments by heavy drinkers who claim
that they drive home drunk all the time; and they are not impaired; and
have never had an accident.  Yet we know that every night people are
killed in accidents involving impaired drivers. We cannot use
exceptions to prove or disprove the rule.

The manufacturers or the tape and the hardware both provide
specifications that reflect that improper handling dramatically
shortens the life of the media. They even provide examples of damage
done to media viewed under Electronic microscopes to show what the
effects of a drop or exposure to dust are to recorded media. Exhaustive
testing has been done by Standards organizations

>
>> A single drop from waist height to the floor damages media according
>> to
>> the manufacturer's own specification. The European Computer
>> Manufacturer's Association (ECMA) specifications refer to failure as a
>> result of exposure to temperatures as low as 90º F. A rise in
>> temperature and humidity simultaneously greatly reduce the life of the
>> media.
>>

I would would imagine that the quote you provided may make it into a
few discussions in the coming months. Maybe these hockey games are
related to the failure rates the magazine article discusses.  CEO's and
CFO's might be interested in how media ends up being destroyed since
under SOX, their ability to stay out of prison is tied to protecting
the data.  These kinds of anecdotal stories strengthen the Records
Managers case on why IT should hand off the protection of media to
those who respect the records encoded on the media.
>>
>>
>> The Storage Magazine article by Rich Castagna was excellent. A third
>> of
>> the respondents in their survey said tape failure was a significant
>> problem.  The "Most Common Cause of Backup Failure" at 53% was the
>> Tape. Just over a quarter of the respondents stated that two or back
>> ups failed "per week" due to tape failures.

I was at a meeting with 25 or so business resumption and disaster
recovery planners in Milwaukee last week and we discussed this very
issue.  Failure rates in large data processing operations are occurring
at a rate that concerns managers and as the media increases in
capacity; the loss of even a single tape or cartridge ends up being a
major problem.

If IT people are not aware of these problems, then it is up to the
records manager to stop the hockey.

[ I knew that in a hockey game a fight may often result from brisk play
but until now I did not know that in Computer Operations that a hockey
game might break out with corporate records serving as the puck. ]


Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
[log in to unmask]
(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM

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