Third Party Tape Rotation And Data Storage Services
Accurate and secure backup tape rotation and storage is a vital part of any business continuity plan, particularly in the digital age, and the importance of good backup rotation policies cannot be stressed enough for any business big or small. Failure to properly backup a system can result in catastrophic data loss, corrupt files, and security breaches that could damage the credibility of your business with your clients. Yet not all businesses possess the staff resources and knowledge to maintain their own effective rotation system to secure their data, and as a result choose to contract with third party data storage services to handle the situation for them.
This may seem like an expensive option at first, but it can often be a wise decision for a business that simply cannot afford to dedicate their staff to the task at this time. To securely store your own data you need to have a staff person responsible for the daily backup as well as maintaining a reliable tape rotation schedule, and then space off site to store the backup tapes when not in use. It is a terrible idea to store the backup tapes in the same building as the original copies on your computers, since many environmental events (such as a fire) that could damage the original would also damage the backup. As such you would need a safety deposit box at a bank or dedicate space in another building to store your backup tapes. This leaves them vulnerable to getting lost or damaged in the transit to the other space, and also leaves them vulnerable to temperature or humidity variations that could damage the physical tapes in storage.
However many companies specialize in providing secure storage for your backup tapes until you need them or want to rotate them out. These companies offer safe transportation with official couriers, then secure storage in climate controlled environments wrapped in a great deal of security systems to protect their treasures. These assets drastically reduce the risk of damaging or losing data, and are a huge boon to many businesses. This is why so many companies choose to contract with third party record storage services to hold on to and rotate out their data tapes for them.