Yes, by all means you should store off-site copies of your critical data
and every piece of software it takes to access and maintain it.  DAT is a
fine medium, but use whatever medium is accessible to you.  Copies of
installation diskettes or cd-roms can be stored off-site.

Off-site locations must be climate controlled, physically secure and media
must be easily retrievable when needed.  Suitable locations run the gamut
of an employee's home with fire-proof cabinet to a commercial data storage
facility.  Making two backups, one for off-site and one to retain on-site
may be an option.

Schemes for doing backups are varied, but a typical one is to backup all
of your systems on a weekend, take those media off-site immediately, then
do daily backups of modified critical data and move those off-site
immediately.  You will have to determine an appropriate rotation schedule
for how long you keep each backup before re-using it.  A typical scheme is
to have three weeks worth of backups plus one for each month in your
current and previous fiscal years.

Remember that you must test the effectiveness of your backup program.
Don't depend on it to work just because you think it is set up
correctly.  Do restores of critical data from backup media using your
normal tools and procedures at least once a year and everytime a change is
made to your backup program.

*Jerry M. Withers <[log in to unmask]>*

On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, Sarah Demb wrote:

> Our museum is interested in making our data files more disaster-proof and
> is considering off-site storage. Can anyone tell us what they have done?
> We are looking at non-commercial situations as well as conventional
> storage and are interested in addressing such questions as all-hours
> access to the information, climate controlled environment, and storage
> formats (we are using DAT now).