This is the third part in a series of 4 editorials that aims to look at the need to ensure the integrity and availability of data stored on tape within YOUR organisation. Each part will take an in-depth look at the products, processes and services that are available to you to help ensure data integrity, reduce risk, improve performance and ultimately, lower cost of ownership.

Whilst it is generally understood that investing in a resilient storage infrastructure is half of the battle, the way in which the information is then managed throughout its lifecycle remains a crucial factor if it is to ever be retrieved. The implementation of Corporate Governance policies and procedures require organisations to look at the whole process – including data archived on tape. Tape issues range from the quality of the media in the first instance through to the conditions in which it is stored; the policies and processes set for backup and archive; through to the measures that are in place to ensure business continuity and third-party neutrality should the data need to be extracted and presented in court.

Part 3 – The reactive approach to media management for data stored on tape: data recovery, problem determination and resolution, tape analysis / technical support, data conversion / migration, legal restores & non-native restoration.

Today?s successful organisations are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the demands placed on them from internal and regulatory compliance and are often unsure what areas need to be prioritised. Whilst a proactive approach to media management will help to ensure operational efficiency, lower cost of ownership, enhance data integrity and minimise risk, if data needs to be restored or recovered to maintain business continuity, or if it needs to be extracted to support a disclosure order (or internal request), timeframes quickly become important and the topic of disaster recovery planning will come under the spotlight.

By working with eMag, your organisation can be safe in the knowledge that if it?s possible ? we can help. Using a team of experts with over 40 years experience, our data recovery service provides for the recovery of data from physically damaged or logically corrupt tape media. It also provides data recovery for tapes that have not been physically damaged, yet the data is still unreadable. Our capabilities in this area are significant, however there are instances where the data is unrecoverable ? it is for this reason that a proactive approach to media management is preferable to ensure availability under any circumstance.

When technical issues arise, in non-urgent situations, eMag are able to provide non-destructive read testing at the eMag service bureau and if necessary further analysis at the lab, which in the majority of cases, leads to recommendations for corrective action. If the issues are of an urgent nature we provide an engineer on-site to support the media and back up operation as part of the overall back up cycle with fault diagnosis and reporting. Should you need to read data from a format that you no longer support, our in-house data conversion capabilities ensure that you are not left with islands of unreadable information. Not only do we boast 6 service centres worldwide, with a vast IT infrastructure to assist with more complicated requirements, we own and develop an in-house software tool that allows data to be read non-natively, thus enabling speedy conversion to a presentable format.

The ability to restore data non-natively is the skill that has given eMag a competitive advantage as timescales for data restoration have become a real headache for IT departments across the developed world. By working with eMag, whether the data needs to be restored for DR or legal purposes, your organisation can be safe in the knowledge that should disaster strike, you have a procedure in place that will safeguard the intellectual property of your organisation.

To learn more about any of the topics discussed in this newsletter, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your requirements in more depth. Next months editorial will look in depth at the eDiscovery process and the extraction of targeted data to support a disclosure order.