Re: Alternatives to Iron Mountain

[John Jones <chianime@xxxxxxxxx>]

Recall would be one of IM's competitors, but as DR2 mentioned you can roll
your own if you have multiple facilities.  At a previous employer we had
multiple facilities around Chicago & the suburbs.  We used a
grandfather/father/son strategy and rotated tapes from the data center to
facility A to B to C and then back to the DC.

I've also seen branch offices that simply use UPS to ship their tapes to the
main office.  As long as a speedy return of the tapes is not a priority you
can do this if your company has multiple facilities but they aren't
geographically close.

Another option if you have a disaster recovery provider is to send your
offsite backups there.  I'm sure there would be a fee but if you actually
had to start a recovery at least the media would be immediately available.

On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 12:53 PM, Don <dr2@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Rob,
>
> It may be a bit simplistic, but if all you're doing is offline backup tape
> and archival tape storage, go rent an environmentally controlled storage
> unit across town, put a big data safe in it and roll your own off site
> schema.  I know plenty that have done this and gotten rid of organizations
> like tin mountain, etc...   Check around local locksmiths and office
> furniture liquidators for used data safes (Schwab used to make a good one
> as
> I recall) and do some cost analysis.
>
> If you have a division in a separate building across town, have them build
> a
> small "fireproof room" in it and slide your safe in there...
>
> DR2
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 1:28 PM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: Alternatives to Iron Mountain
>
> Anyone using an offsite tape company?  We're using Iron Mountain however
> we do not have a receptionist and they like to switch around their arrival
> time and it's getting hard to get someone in the department to forfeit
> their lunch in case Iron Mountain may show up.  We had an alternative plan
> where they were given access to a secured room to pick up or remove tapes
> and this worked well for awhile.  Now they want us to key in some PIN
> number - back to missing lunch.  That's why we're looking at alternatives.
>
> Rob Berendt
> --
> Group Dekko Services, LLC
> Dept 01.073
> Dock 108
> 6928N 400E
> Kendallville, IN 46755
> http://www.dekko.com
>
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