[H-GEN] Any recommendations for Tape Backup software ?

[Greg Black]

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On 2003-11-10, David Jericho wrote:
> James McPherson - PTS Engineer wrote:
> 
> >actually work? I know from experience that the majority of
> >sysadmins _do not_ verify their backups -- it bites them and
> >me when they call in the middle of the night....

I make it a clear element of all my contracts that any work I
have to do as a result of the customer's failure to both make
and verify backups will be charged at three times my normal
rate.  This seems draconian to the customers, but it does
usually concentrate their minds sufficiently to have an impact
on their procedures.

> [2] I'm constantly amazed at the number of companies, that even after 
> all the IT related horror stories from 9/11, that companies with budgets 
> of billions don't spend money on offsite storage and service replication.

Indeed, although it's worth noting that just spending the money
is no guarantee of a good result.  One of this country's big
four banks once setup a new data centre in a capital city far
from here.

They did all the stuff you'd expect, such as redundant power
supplies and on-site generators.  And, because this was in the
days of water-cooled mainframes, they arranged for redundant
water supplies via mains that came in from two different
directions.  Lovely stuff.

When the traditional ditch digger dug up one of these water
mains, they discovered that the water authority had not really
given them two different supplies, but had just branched from a
single point close to the site and brought pipes in from each
side.  The mainframes got hot and much blood was split on the
corporate floor.  Sometimes, Murphy is just too good.

Cheers, Greg

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