With businesses generating, storing, and utilising more data than ever before, the secure storage and archiving of legacy data is essential if businesses want to meet their industry’s compliance regulations.
The majority of businesses store their long-term archives on tape, as this provides a low-cost solution. However, with costs and technology changing, many businesses find themselves changing their backup channels frequently, making legacy data control increasingly complex.
And, as more and more data is archived, the challenge of ensuring quick access to legacy data and keeping it under control becomes more difficult.
As a result, properly managing achieved data is vital for reducing risk and cost.
An increasing number of businesses are turning to Managed Tape Services to control their legacy data and remain fully compliant.
What is a Managed Tape Service?
Managed Tape Services involve legacy data tapes being managed by third-party providers, who ensure that tape archives remain secure and are accessible if a compliance request is received.
This is particularly important for businesses in heavily regulated industries, such as finance, healthcare, and government.
Tape Management Services usually involve:
Auditing
Tape auditing provides an overview of your legacy data, preventing the accidental destruction of archive data, reducing the amount of time it takes to search and restore data and avoiding compliance and litigation issues.
Cataloguing
Cataloguing legacy data efficiently makes it easier for you to manage. The service provider will use proprietary tools that allow them to read and recover data from any tape, no matter how it was originally backed up, and even if it was damaged.
Migration
If your tape formats are no longer supported, the managed service provider can migrate the data over to an alternative format. As part of this process, the data can also be converted and consolidated into one, unified platform.
Restoration and Recovery
If tapes are corrupted, broken, or inaccessible, the data can be repaired or restored, quickly. Consider restoration if your tapes are inaccessible or if you need assistance extracting data for any purpose (business, legal, compliance).
The benefits of using Managed Tape Services
Managed Tape Services offer a range of benefits, including:
Better organization
Organization is critical, ensuring the correct data can be identified when needed, regardless of its format. If the data is not available on a backup server, the majority of Managed Tapes Services providers will create a catalogue for loose tapes, so it is quick and easy to see what is stored on them.
This level of organization and clarity makes it easy for businesses to establish what they need to retain for compliance purposes, and what data can be destroyed. As a result, storage also becomes easier.
Reduced costs
Managed Tape Services are usually paid on a subscription basis, meaning payments are regular and predictable. In addition to this, when implementing Managed Tape Services, businesses no longer require the legacy systems they have in place for managing old backup tapes, reducing costs.
Optimized knowledge retention
When businesses are using legacy backup software, they can be highly dependent on key staff members who have knowledge of these systems. Using a Managed Tape Service, reduces this dependency, as the provider’s staff have an in-depth knowledge of the majority of backup formats. This frees up the business’ IT teams to focus on other projects, supporting the growth and efficiency of the organization.
Data recovery
In the event that tapes are corrupted, broken, or inaccessible, Managed Tape Services providers have the ability to restore and repair them. This means that the achieves can still be accessed without delay, ensuring compliance with any relevant legal or government requests.
Indexing
Managed Tape Services involve the indexing of tapes, which gives businesses a clear, comprehensive, and accurate overview of the data stored on them. This means required data and tapes can be located quickly when required, ensuring the business stays compliant while saving time and money.
Merging data
In sectors such as financial data, mergers and acquisitions frequently take place and, when they do, it is essential that achieved data from the two companies involved can be accessed as quickly and easily as possible.
When businesses merge with or acquire other businesses, they typically find themselves acquiring new legacy data tapes. If these tapes have not been managed effectively, it can be almost impossible to know what data is stored on them.
Flexibility
Backup formats vary from business to business. If a business no longer has the software needed to read their tapes, a Managed Tape Services solution will ensure that all tapes can be read, catalogued, and migrated to a current, accessible format.
Get your legacy data under control with Managed Tape Services
With over 30 years of global experience in data management, Ontrack has the knowledge and expertise to provide Managed Tape Services for any business.
Our tape services team provides clients with peace of mind when accessing legacy data on tapes and virtual backup environments. Our proprietary tools allow us to read and recover data from any tape type, regardless of backup method and infrastructure.
Get in touch to discuss how our Managed Tape Services can help get your legacy data under control or request a free, no-obligation consultation today.
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