> From: Leann Hunsucker <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: August 2, 2012 8:23:45 AM EDT
> Subject: Tape Management white paper
I liked the paper but I added my insights from my own perspective. The artwork was nice too.
While there are many far better able to comment on all the records management functions, I noticed that you failed to really define protection of the tapes by the client or the offsite storage service provider.
Every single portion of the pillars collapse if the client does not develop an environmental control model for their tape library, CD's, DVD's so that they do not deteriorate in their offsite and onsite life.
IT Managers just assume that what is inside the tape will just always play when required and due to that they often mistreat their collection. One once told me they used their 3590's as hockey pucks during the dull hours of the late night shift using brooms as their hockey sticks.
Computer tapes come equipped with a chip to monitor their remaining life and this should be part of the plan along with a Vault Monitor to measure the continuing state of temperature and humidity, and this should be done at the server room and vault ends of the plan.
One thing people do not discuss, is that due to the greater heat tolerance of computer rooms, due to the tremendous heat they produce.......the computer media is exposed to high temperature levels during operational time. This reduces their life span as the media itself is softer during recording.
Is the media carried offsite inside a refrigerated van or does it cycle up to 100º F when the driver leaves the van and then drops to 75º when the driver returns. This cycling is harmful to tapes in a minute way per occasion but one a media unit that might see 100,000 rotations during its life, then housekeeping is critical.
What about the racking in the storage environment? The earthquake on the east coast dropped a great many tapes on the floor during its rumble through. A drop of 36" damages the tape. This damages the data on it and also the ability to record over this spot where damage occurred on other cycles.
[and you knew it was coming......] What about the vault storage? Most IT Managers think that their tapes offsite are stored in an appropriate vault but you skipped over this. Just as they often do. Is the vault you store in rated for media? Is it Class 125 Media Rated? Is it magnetically shielded? (Solar Flares may or may not be an issue? But the topic should be addressed.) They say that enemies may choose to create some sort of radiation interference to shut down our computing capability. Imagine what that would do to our economy.
This is important...... When the offsite storage vault is destroyed, the client is forced into Disaster Recovery! Why? Because their disaster recovery plan says that at all times the tapes will be redundant. So if the offsite tapes are destroyed, they must stop doing business as usual and immediately recreate set two and soon set three. This is enormously expensive.
Medical records are going digital. Imagine that hundreds of thousands of Mammograms are destroyed. The practice is to compare 2012 to 2011 to 2010 and if tomorrow everything but the current one goes away, that means that 2,400 women out of every 100,000 women over 40 will have cancer growing in their body, spreading with no comparison to initiate life saving actions.
If you assume the records are life saving or corporation saving then your whole model will change to one where housekeeping and storage will add a pillar or two. Maybe this is too much detail but editing down is easier when people supply input than filling in the blanks.
Nice Paper.
Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610) 756-4440 Fax (610) 756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM
On Aug 3, 2012, at 12:00 AM, RECMGMT-L automatic digest system wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I would like to invite any comment on a new white paper we have produced
> titled "The 5 Pillars of Tape Management".
>
> The white paper outlines what we see as the 5 critical aspects of Tape
> Management:
>
> 1. Asset Management
> 2. Chain of Custody
> 3. Library Management
> 4. Disaster Recovery
> 5. Quality Control.
>
> The paper is available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/101727680/The-5-Pillars-
> of-Tape-Manangement
>
> We welcome your comment, either online or offline.
>
> Thanks
>
> LeAnn.
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