The Eight Track Tape

When I ten years old my father had an old pickup truck that had an eight track tape player in the dash. We ran his battery down more than once listening to the three or four tapes he kept in that old truck. One day the eight track player broke and that was the last of listening to John Denver switching songs in the middle of the chorus.

I find it interesting that in a world with Zune, the iPod, TIVO and DVR that so many small businesses are still relegating their most valuable non-human asset to tapes. Don't get me wrong, in massive data centers and enterprise computing, tape backup still has its place. I just don't see it being a major asset to the small business owner. Cheap tapes, drives and software being used to safeguard the information that is so crucial to operating your business. If you are not prepared to pay at least $9,000 on your tape solution, then just don't bother.

There is an alternative. If you are one of the overwhelming majority of internet connected businesses, you can use an online backup service to store your data. The most difficult part of these services is not the cost its just remembering your password. The price has become so reasonable lately that it just doesn't make sense not to. For less than you are probably spending on liability insurance you can get data insurance.

About five months ago, a folder with some custom code was deleted from my server. The code represented a significant investment. I jumped online and had the files restored to my server within 15 minutes. I didn't have to go anywhere to retrieve the tape from the last full week, index the tapes or wait for the seek operation. It was instant recovery gratification! I have worked with similar situations where the backup was on a tape and it took hours of toil only to find the tapes were too old and no longer readable.

If you haven't already, you need to do yourself a favor and seriously consider an online backup solution. If you are reluctant, at least do a recovery audit on your existing solution.