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When it is all about the data we have to make sure we have the data! A few years ago I was talking with a young IT professional that had recently been hired as a “backup administrator.” He was very proud of his new role and shared with me that he just could not believe that he was actually being paid to “back up data.” I very carefully explained to the newbie that he most assuredly was NOT being paid to backup data and that I hoped he never had to learn that lesson the hard way! He was both confused and a little bit indignant when he said, “what do you think they are paying me for?” I said, “My friend, you are being paid to RESTORE data and if you ever lose an important file that fact will be made very clear to you during your exit interview.”

When you need the data and you cannot get the data what you do get is a sinking feeling. Sometimes you actually have the data you just cannot find it and that makes you feel even worse. Remember the old proverbial story about the needle in the haystack? Well, with the amount of data out there today that needle can be very small and the haystack enormous. If you have a great deal of data especially unstructured data like medical images or video you absolutely need to have a great archive program if you hope to find your files when you need them. LTFS and active archive might just help save your job. If you are not familiar with LTFS or active archive ask your DataSpan representative about StrongBox.

If you really do lose a file that you need to recover from a backup tape or disk your DataSpan rep may be able to help with that as well. We are in the data protection business but the best time to find a file is before you lose it so we also recommend a regular audit of your backup and archive systems for the sake of job security.

If you do not have a backup or an archive consultant we are happy to help you out. We have been in the data protection business for over 30 years. Media Recovery is in our blood and DataSpan is in our future.

Steve Breinig
sbreinig@dataspan.com

Added on 07/16/2012

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