An Introduction to Tape Backup

Written by Linus Chang


If you run a small business, chances are you're saving important files to a server. But what happens when disaster strikes? How are you ensuring that your files won't be lost? Many people fail to realize thatrepparttar loss of files could cripple their business. You can insure your office and equipment, but you can't insure files. You can't repair or buy back lost files. Ipso facto, they are lost!

This brings us torepparttar 107262 concept of disaster recovery. What is disaster recovery? If you're thinking that disaster recovery is about frantically trying to get back data that's already been lost, then you're already behindrepparttar 107263 8-ball! Disaster recovery is about safeguarding your organization's data so that it can be safely restored in event of a crippling disaster. And having an industry-standard file backup strategy is undoubtedlyrepparttar 107264 most important part of disaster recovery.

What you have to do is ensure that all files onrepparttar 107265 server are backed up to another storage medium - tape, removable hard disk, NAS device, and so on. Most businesses choose to use tape. Let's look at how you can set up a tape backup strategy for your own business.

1. Tape -repparttar 107266 perfect backup medium

Isn't tape an anachronism inrepparttar 107267 age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of whiz-bang, random-access storage media? Tape is indeed a dinosaur in relative terms, but it's ideal for backup. Tape is slow, but can store a lot of data... one mid-range tape should be enough to backup your entire server. Plus, tape is extremely cheap - mid-range tapes cost around $20 each.

2. When should you backup?

Typically, tape backup is performed atrepparttar 107268 end of each day. Just put inrepparttar 107269 tape and letrepparttar 107270 backup process run overnight. If your server ever suffers a catastrophic disaster, you have at least saved all your files fromrepparttar 107271 previous day.

3. Tape Rotation

The ideal tape backup solution would involve using a new tape for each backup. This means purchasing a new tape for every day of your business's operations. This is hardly cost-effective for your business. Tape is cheap, but not that cheap!

This is why we speak of tape rotation. Tape rotation means to reuse tapes from previous backups. The simplest tape rotation scheme is to have one tape for each day ofrepparttar 107272 working week. Tapes are labeled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

You can restore data from any one ofrepparttar 107273 tapes in your library, or in this case, any day inrepparttar 107274 pastrepparttar 107275 week. This strategy requires only five tapes, but only provides one week's data backup history.

Disappointing Designs

Written by Paul Hood


Fred Showker catches a line from a Pete Seeger classic, “Where have allrepparttar flowers gone?” His flowers arerepparttar 107261 web designers that he thinks are going extinct. He laments onrepparttar 107262 seeming “decay” inrepparttar 107263 art of web designing and says gone arerepparttar 107264 designers who made a difference inrepparttar 107265 making of web designs and who provided quality sites forrepparttar 107266 people to visit.

Showker argues that he has seen a decline inrepparttar 107267 quality of web sites basing from reviews he made of several sites. From his statements, I can see that he is well-versed in making analyses of web sites and is a credible source of information. Many sites came under his meticulous scrutiny and not one was spared.

Some ofrepparttar 107268 sites that he revisited were dead and others that are still up failed to meetrepparttar 107269 expected standards. The changes he saw came as a shock since he did not expect many of them to go downrepparttar 107270 drain.

Riddler.com was one site that Showker said proved to be a disappointment as it took out of considerationrepparttar 107271 reading pleasure ofrepparttar 107272 reader and instead took on a much commercialized look. Webshaker.com is similar as well.

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was another site that was axe by Showker. Indeed, I was surprise to see a content inrepparttar 107273 site aboutrepparttar 107274 Black History month with Martin Luther King Jr.’s picture in it. I have to agree with Fred on this one as I see no relevance ofrepparttar 107275 content in promoting B&J’s ice cream. Perhaps there is an underlying purpose for that but I honestly don’t see its bearing here.

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