Technology: tape-based backup of data seen unreliable.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: BusinessBRIEFS - Storing corporate data

Seventy-five percent of respondents in a recently concluded survey of information technology (IT) executives indicated that their companies suffered unrecoverable loss of corporate data they thought was successfully backed up to tape due to unreadable, lost or stolen media. The online survey, commissioned by Asigra[TM], a specialist in "agentless" multisite backup and recovery software for network computing, sought to better understand how IT staffs safeguard information throughout the enterprise, including remote offices, and how the backup and recovery process ROBOs (remote office/branch office) could be improved.

Among the survey findings:

* 63 percent of respondents said they encountered unreadable tapes when they tried to retrieve data, with 76 percent of those cases reporting a direct impact to their business from loss of productivity to punishments for regulatory compliance infractions.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

* 61 percent said they back up remote offices to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster, while 17 percent indicated that there are no formal backup procedures in place at their remote offices.

* 20 percent said their...