Background

Disaster Prevention and
Investment Protection

Fires, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters ruin thousands of businesses every year. Yet the majority of lost data comes through human errors and accidents. Lost or destroyed data can eliminate your business.

Protecting your backup data is critical

• Cost-to-Recreate is High
  
• Higher Areal Densities for Media
  
• Lower Temperature Tolerances
  
• Lower Humidity Tolerances
  
• Summary
  
• Solution For Data Protection
  

Cost-to-Recreate is High

• Cost to Re-create data is $50,000 per hour
  
• 43% of companies that have a severe data loss go out of business immediately.
  
• The cost to recreate the data is prohibitive. U.S. firms spend nearly $5 billion annually to recover from data losses.
  
• 25 million business days each year are spent re-creating lost data.
  
• Data cannot be insured
  
• Current Business receipts are delayed.
  

Besides, who will keep the business running while employees are recreating lost data?

Higher Areal Densities For Media

Manufacturers are putting more data on the same form factor as last year. This is convenient, but it is now easier to lose more data on fewer media. Today, areal densities go as high as 4.3 GB/Sq.In. By 2001, densities are expected to go as high as 40 GB/Sq. In.

Back to Top

New Media has Lower Temperature Tolerances
Media safes on the market today have to pass a UL test that shows the internal temperature after a one hour fire does not exceed 125ºF/52ºC. Unfortunately, most backup tape technology cannot be exposed to temperatures above 104 - 113ºF. These temperature tolerances are lower with archival storage. Many optical CD formats cannot be exposed above 104ºF. This renders most media safes on the market useless, at least for the newer media technologies. Consider the following media tolerances:

• 104ºF/40ºC maximum for storage of DLT, 8mm and most CD-Rewritable media.
  
• 113ºF/45ºC maximum for storage of 4mm DAT, TRAVAN and most other tape cartridges.
  
• 122ºF/50ºC maximum for storage of most diskettes, removables and CD-ROMs.
  
• 20% Relative Humidity for archived media and slightly higher for short term storage.
  

For more detailed information on media tolerances, go to What The Experts Say for manufacturer's specifications for 4mm, 8mm, 13 GB, DLT and CD-Rewritable.

Media safes on the market today are all rated at 125ºF/52ºC. This means the inside of the safe will not get above 125ºF/52ºC during a one hour fire. Most newer tape and optical media cannot go above 104ºF/40ºC to 113ºF/45ºC. So unless you are storing diskettes, CD-ROMs or some older tapes, these 125ºF/52ºC rated safes will not meet the fire protection needs of the media.

Back to Top

New Media has Lower Humidity Tolerances

"Store Your Media in a Dry, Cool Area"

All media manufacturers tell us to store media in a cool area for a good reason: care for your data or lose it and your business. Here's why moisture/humidity protection is important:

• Areal densities for media are much greater today. With a higher areal density, a greater number of bits are lost for the same defect size. A defect that would go unnoticed on a 9-track tape may cause a "hard error" on a 4mm or 8mm tape.
  
• Lower storage temperatures extend media life expectancy (LE) and slow down media material degradation processes.
  
• Lower humidity levels extend LE and reduce the amount of water absorbed by the media materials (binders).
  
• Higher storage temperatures shorten LE and cause the media to expand, distort, delaminate and crack.
  
• Higher humidity levels shorten LE and cause media materials to break down or degrade, corrode or de-alloy.
  
• Tape substrates can expand/contract as ambient temperatures and humidity change resulting in read errors and mis-tracking, as well as a breakdown of the binder materials.
  
• Optical disk systems has polymers that can corrode or de-alloy, and an aluminum reflective area that can corrode with fluctuations of humidity.
  
• Magneto-Optical systems have sensitive magnetic layers. Subjecting M-O disks to temperature and humidity fluctuations can result in cracking the magnetic layer.

Back to Top

Summary

• Lowering either the storage temperature or relative humidity will increase Life Expectancy of data and decrease Data Errors.
  
• Lowering both is optimal.
  
• You cannot, however, always control temperature levels and fluctuations.
  
• You CAN control humidity levels and fluctuations by using DataDry.
  

Back to Top

Solution For Data Protection
FireCooler Media Protectors and DataDry Moisture Absorbers
To protect your investment, use the:

• FireCooler 1000 to protect diskettes, CD-ROMs and high temperature tape cartridges.
  
• FireCooler 1100 to protect 4mm, 8mm, DLT, TRAVAN and CD-Rewritable media.
  
• DataDry Moisture Absorber to control moisture and humidity levels, extend media life expectancy and decrease data errors.

Back to Top