Melissa,
Backup tapes are retained as an internal operational function to meet the
needs of disaster recovery.  A typical rotation cycle might be 14 days -
based on what is needed to ensure a full system restore as necessary.  In
this case, the business unit responsible for managing the backup tapes
determines the rotation requirement.

Sometimes because of litigation we place a "freeze" (we do not change the
retention policy) on the backup tapes if there has not been an adequate
method for capturing and retaining the electronic records from a specific
system.  Nobody likes to do this, but sometimes it is necessary until we are
able to implement adequate records management methods for the electronic
systems.

Once you place a "freeze" on any set of records I recommend a routine
process to verify that the freeze is still necessary, and lift the freeze as
soon as possible.  We have had to do this a few times and it certainly does
increase the volume and cost of tapes consumed and stored.  This is a cost
of doing business which hopefully is less than the cost of the litigation
judgements that might result if the information is not available.

As others have pointed out, just retaining the tapes does not guarantee that
they are readable or the data is easily presented as an acceptable
"document", but it may be better than nothing and may at least demonstrate
"good faith".
Thanks,
Mary W. Haider
Records & Information Manager

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