The most obvious solution to this probably is not to delete any data from
primary storage that has a long-term retention period. This is not a
backup issue, which is why discussions of this nature rarely occur on this
list. What we do here at Temple University is simply keep our data in
primary storage until the legal need to do so is not longer present. This
gets expensive for primary storage, but now there are options that let you
move older data that is less frequently accessed to slower and less
expensive primary storage, which we do not do here, but probably should.
At any rate if your organization keeps its data on primary storage until
the data is no longer necessary for regulatory purposes, it takes
long-term backups out of the equation. Your older data simply gets moved
to newer primary storage as you do primary storage upgrades. Backup
retention than can be kept to a minimum period.

On 2/18/11 2:42 PM, "Browning, David" <DBrown AT LSUHSC DOT EDU> wrote:

>Just out of curiosity, what is everyone doing in terms of long term
>retention of data, and still being able to read old tapes?
>
> 
>
>For example, we have thousands of old LTO-2 and LTO-3 tapes.   We are
>looking to upgrade to LTO-5, but then that would mean we can't read our
>old LTO-2 tapes, unless we keep at least 1, or more, LTO-3 drives.
>Right now, that really isn't a problem.
>
> 
>
>What happens 5, or 10, years from now, when LTO-3 drives are no longer
>available for service?
>
> 
>
>Our regulatory requirements are to keep some of our data upwards of 30
>years, so this question is not going away any time soon.
>
> 
>
>- Dave. 
>
> 
>
>David M. Browning Jr.
>
>IT Project Coordinator Enterprise Backups and Help Desk
>
> 
>
>
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