[svlug] backup solutions? - tell me more ???

[kmself@ix.netcom.com]

on Thu, Jan 04, 2001 at 12:52:19AM -0800, Rafael (raffi at linwin.com) wrote:
> On Thu, 4 Jan 2001, Alvin Oga wrote:
> 
> > 
> > hi ya karsten..
> > 
> > ( just my silly comments follows...
> > 
> .........................
> > 
> > ... what dont i understand ??? - using the same "line of thought"
> > 
> > ... remember when the somebody walked off with 30,000 visa numbers ???
> >     from a supposedly high security area ?
> 
> That's the most important point of this discussion. It used to be, huge
> computers protected by armed guards, tapes stored in vaults. Now bad guys
> from Russia, Romania and Middle East can "walk into store" at any time and
> do more damage to your business than earthquake or flood combined.

I'm also getting tired of repeating this point (not you, Raph, but
Alvin):  archive encryption weakens the integirity of the entire
archive, making it vulnerable to very small data glitches.  If you're
going to encrypt data, do it in the primary storage media and format.
This encryption will be carried forward to any archive.

I'll add the observation from my days as a data analyst:  companies have
been pursuing "data whorehousing", um, sorry, "warehousing", with some
abandon for the past decade, thinking there's great value in their data.
Thing is, there's also liability, particularly in personal and financial
information which may damage its subjects if leaked or misappropriated.

Data must be seen as similar to any highly concentrated low-entropy
fluid.  Like gasoline, it's valuable, useful, and a source of motive
energy when appropriately applied.  Misused, it's dangerous at best and
explosively destructive at worst.

> > dataStore is good for things like ..."in case there is a fire" not
> > backups....cause it takes um a day or two ot get the flimsy
> > "lockbox" 
> 
> It usualy takes about a week to get the files back, much longer than
> some managers are willing to wait for you to fix the mistake.

If your on-site backups have been damaged, destroyed, or otherwise
compromized, and you're now relying on DataStore, chances are you've
suffered more than minor damage -- either physical damage (fire, flood,
earthquake, plane crash) to your site, renegade employee(s), or
infiltration.  In which case, you've got bigger problems than data
restoration.  Most good data archival companies offer expedited
delivery, with escalating rates for 24 hour and same-day service.

By the time you reach this stage, multiple redundant remotely situated
datacenters becomes a recommended alternative.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>    http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 Evangelist, Zelerate, Inc.                      http://www.zelerate.org
  What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?      There is no K5 cabal
   http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/        http://www.kuro5hin.org
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