How to Stop Managing Legacy Tape Infrastructure by Jay Livens

The story is a common one. Company A (A for short) starts with tape backup infrastructure B because it was inexpensive or otherwise met business requirements. Over time, A evolves and eventually outgrows infrastructure B thus forcing the A team (!) to evaluate alternatives. They assess many options and eventually decide to migrate to infrastructure C which often includes new backup hardware and software. The technology update usually brings more functionality but with increased cost and complexity. The transition leaves A in a difficult position - implementing and running the new environment, C, and managing the legacy tape from environment B, which is needed to maintain access to older information. Now imagine this process repeating itself multiple times.

The above scenario sounds far-fetched doesn't it? But, for many users it is the reality. Through a combination of technology change or even mergers and acquisitions, many companies are saddled with multiple generations, versions and vendors of backup hardware and software. The challenge is daunting because over time the knowledge associated with the legacy infrastructure becomes stale and hardware reliability declines. To make matters worse, if a recovery failure occurs, the manufacturers of the legacy systems and software may be unwilling to support the customer in a cost-effective manner. The result is an increase risk and cost, and most practitioners simply hope that the legacy data is never needed.

There are also hidden expenses that further add to the burden. For example, in a recent survey of over 230 end users, Iron Mountain found that 50% of the respondents left their legacy hardware powered on and racked in case recoveries were required. Think of the power, cooling and footprint consumed by these older systems. Companies bear these costs because they don't want to be caught unprepared for an unexpected restoration or discovery event and yet how frequently are these requests received? For many, customers the answer is rarely ; however, customers often ask if we can help them find a better way to address these challenges. Fortunately, Iron Mountain's Archival Tape Management solution can help.

The primary reason companies maintain legacy infrastructure is to access older backup information, and hence the real challenge is data accessibility. For most IT practitioners, the ideal world would be one where all legacy information was available rapidly and cost effectively whenever and wherever it is requested without the need to maintain legacy infrastructures. Iron Mountain's Archival Tape Management solution addresses this challenge by providing a web-based portal where customers can access a searchable index of their legacy backup information including the ability to search on backup job and server names. Once the user has identified the data they need, Iron Mountain can use its unique recovery environment to restore the requested information and provide it back to the customer via a simple download or by sending storage hardware to the customer site. The result is cost-effective and rapid access to legacy information without the need to maintain complex and outdated infrastructure.

For many customers the challenge of accessing information stored on old equipment is a challenge of significant proportions and worst of all, these users may not experience issues until they are under pressure to complete an urgent recovery. Let's be honest, the worst time to find out you have an issue is when you are in a stressful, time sensitive situation. At Iron Mountain, we store millions of tapes and understand the challenges of maintaining and accessing information over time. Our Archival Tape Management solution provides on-demand access to older information and is a game changer for many of our customers.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/service-lines/data-backup-and-recov...
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