Not many of us have much experience when it comes to developing a business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan, and until recent years we haven't really felt the need to worry about either one. After all, we weren't always responsible for so much data, were we? But events such as the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, as well as natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, have changed our definition of worst case scenario, and have increased our awareness that a complete, interdisciplinary business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan are absolutely critical to the survival of our businesses.

So, what are a business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan? Simply put, they are plans that spell out how your business will function in the event of a disaster, whether onsite or regional in scope. Although we usually think of disasters as weather events, earthquakes, fires, or terrorist activities, they may also (and most frequently do) include things such as equipment failures, security breaches, and attacks by hackers.

And while a solid business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan most certainly include details on how to contact employees, ways to acquire supplies, or where a secondary work site will be located, most businesses are so data-intensive these days that you can’t introduce a complete business continuity and disaster recovery plan if you have neglected critical tasks like data backup and recovery.

The data backup industry has been rapidly making a transition from tape to disk, but are there any true cost savings of backup to disk vs tape? This is the subject of an ongoing debate in the data backup industry. Let's consider the following points about backup to disk vs tape:

1. Tape based backup systems lack flexibility and simplicity. Tapes need to be rotated, media needs to be managed, and your tape hardware also must be managed and monitored. What all this typically means is that you have to pay personnel (most likely your high-paid IT staff) to perform these tasks. Backup to disk technologies, which are typically fully-automated, can reduce your human resources expenses.
2. Tape-based backup systems can be tricky to set up and expensive to maintain. You will probably need an IT consultant to do this for you (no cost savings there!). The backup device and the software to go with it can be pricey. Disk-based systems are becoming increasingly affordable, and depending on the system you choose, may not require the purchase of additional software.
3. Speed of recovery can also be an issue with tape backup solutions. Tapes must usually be retrieved from an offsite warehouse, then data must be located and retrieved from the tape. Today, rapid recovery of data is critical to the operational efficiency of many businesses, and inefficiencies cost us money, don’t they? Restoration from a disk-based backup is faster and more efficient.