The Importance of Offsite Backup
Every organization needs to backup its data – that is just a fact of IT in the modern era. Should a disaster occur, whether a data breach, weather-related event, political turmoil or anything else, data is at risk. If improperly backed up, those digital assets can disappear forever or become damaged and compromised. Not only that, but data compliancy auditors will check to see that managers have comprehensive backup plans in place. If not, those companies can risk fines or citations. The bottom line is, one version of data is not enough.
With that said, not all backup plans are adequate. Simply copying that data onto a tape or into the cloud and leaving it there will not cut it. Organizations must consider a backup tape management platform to consolidate and track all of that backup data so they can call upon it at a moment’s notice. But there is another level to data backup beyond making a single backup copy.
Offsite backup is a necessary insurance policy
One benefit of data tapes is that they can easily and inexpensively be shipped to a remote storage location separate from the company’s headquarters. Why might this be necessary? Because disasters happen – fires, flooding, earthquakes and other events can seriously compromise any building and all of its assets.
However, that is not to say that onsite backups are useless. Quite the contrary – in a pinch, it is better to have a backup tape right there, ready to go, rather than sitting in a warehouse a thousand miles away. According to In-Cumbria, a combination of onsite and offsite backup is the best policy. The source also notes that organizations should backup their assets frequently and transfer backups to an offsite facility regularly.
Software to track backup tapes
Once a company invests in a remote location for their backup tapes, it should also implement a vault management system to track those assets and present clear tape tracking capabilities to its auditors. There are a number of powerful offsite tape management systems available to give managers that transparency.
Additionally, as data accumulates it will become increasingly difficult to manage all of those assets with a basic spreadsheet. Software designed to track, label and analyze those tapes is an invaluable tool in today’s data-heavy world.