Where have your tapes been?(First in / First out)

John is the storage administrator for a multi-national company. Although business is good, the purchasing department at MMI is under heavy pressure to get the best possible prices for all office supplies. Last year, they substantially reduced their costs for laser printer consumables by purchasing recycled and refurbished toner cartridges from various online sources. So, they purchased "recertified" tape media for their data center. John objected but was overruled by Jane, the purchasing manager, who was given a direct order from the CEO to reduce costs. The company saved 30% on their recent recertified tape media purchases; but with it, came another unexpected expense as a result of its use.

After importing a set of these "recertified" tapes into their automated library, one of them jammed in a tape drive during the weekly full backup operation. The backup job failed, and before it could be rerun, the company was hit hard by the Mydoom Worm, which infected its computers, sending thousands of infected e-mails to its branch offices, customers and partners. The CEO was not pleased and the company found that several of the unused recertified tapes contained the virus.

The tape recycling business is a fairly new phenomenon that is being built on the model of recycling printer cartridges. Unfortunately, though, tape cartridges don't run out of toner that can be replenished to make the tape "like new" or extend its life. While you may be paying less than for a new tape cartridge, the ultimate costs to your business may be enormous.

Obviously, tape users are looking to get the best price possible for all their technology purchases, especially for consumables such as tape and toner cartridges. And you certainly have the right to purchase after-market products if you understand the risks associated with these products. But you may want to consider its reliability and integrity.

Did You Know?

From a user perspective, there are a number of reasons to be concerned when using tapes that are recycled or "recertified."

The biggest concern is your data. You're using tape to protect your most precious asset for long-term archival, to recover from unintentional data loss, and to get your operation back on its feet after a major disaster. Why would you invest all this time and money on data protection systems and procedures, and then use suspect media to actually store the data?