I have a stock answer for anyone that asks for a solution 10 minutes before the meeting. "Do you have funding?"
If the answer is no (and anything other then a 'yes' is a no) then the stock answer is "There are a number of different posibilities depending on the requirements. Do you have a list of the requirements that we can review?" Generally I end up smiling at them and repeating the need for requirements before randomly speculating. This annoys people but is expected behaviour as I justify it by stating that I cannot speculate without requirements because then people might start making plans based on soemthing that isn't happening. Also, certain project managers haev a habit of taking random discussions and adding more weight then there actually is to them. As to us. We have our 'normal' retention. Which is 6 months to 3 years depending on data group, etc. We also have a 'meets contract/state/federal obligation' of 7 years retention on certain types of data. Our backup jobs are grouped around these rention periods (which also helps storage team determine tape needs) as well as 'restore priorites. These tapes are stored offsite and a portion has/is being converted to this new 'virtual tape libraries stuff. This also means that our backup solution is tied to TSM for 7 years in the event we ever migrate away from it. Since I don't manage it I can't tell you much more then that but whatever you decide, know that you are married to a support contract for a while if you ever change. Steven Peck http://www.blkmtn.org On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 12:07 PM, Joseph Heaton <[email protected]> wrote: > Ya, I know I didn't specify enough, I was contacted about this last minute > (10 minutes before the meeting in fact), and asked to provide options. > > The files in question have a retention requirement of 50 years, due to some > Federal funding, or somesuch... They currently reside on a Novell shared > drive. Our first option is to transfer them to our Windows-based, homegrown > document library. Only real problem with this is that it's robbing Peter to > pay Paul, and we end up in the same boat, of running out of drive space. > There are to be further discussions, with questions asked about access: > how often, how quickly do they need it, etc. > > At the moment, we're talking 200-300GB, with a growth of about 10GB per > month. My thoughts are to keep the last x years highly available, in the > document library, and archive the rest to DVDs, or a cheap, external hard > drive that can be housed at our warm site. Irregardless, the data would > need to be transferred to new media periodically, as no one method would > last forever. > > >>> Ben Scott <[email protected]> 6/13/2011 11:40 AM >>> > On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 12:53 PM, Joseph Heaton <[email protected]> > wrote: > > How do you guys address issues of having to keep certain data for 10, 50 > years, or more? > > You need to define the problem better. > > In the IT world, there's a *huge* difference between "10 years" and > "more than 50 years". Most technologies from 2001 are still on the > market today. In 1961, ASCII hadn't been invented yet, transistorized > computers were cutting-edge, and vacuum tubes common. The challenge > -- and thus the cost -- varies proportionately with time. > > For example, I know IBM has mag tape systems they claim will store > for decades, but they're very expensive. If you really only need ten > years, paying for that makes no sense. > > Questions include: How much data? What type? Is it easily > represented in a human-readable form? How often are you going to need > to access this data (every day, once a year, stick it in a tape vault > and forget about it)? Any particular threats (flood, human attack, > etc.)? > > Depending on the specifics, the best answer might be anything from > "print it out and store the paper in a cave in Arizona" to "keep it on > your production RAID array, carrying it forward as you upgrade". > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
