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Subject: Computers & Automation
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 16:00:26 EST
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10/27/92

TITLE Computers & Automation

Few PC Users Make Use Of Tape Drives To Guard Against Data Loss


Brian Deagon


Some old habits are hard to change in the data storage business.
At least that's one conclusion drawn by Minnesota Mining &
Manufacturing Co. from a new study on the use - or lack of use -
of tape drives that back up data stored on computer disk drives.
"Businesses are gambling," asserted Michael Stevens, director of
3M's data storage tape technology division.  Computers & Automa-
tion

"For want of a secondary storage device and a comprehensive back-
up policy, some of the the most data-intensive U.S. organizations
are faced with having key staff members virtually out of commis-
sion for weeks reconstructing lost data," he said. "And these are
conservative figures." The survey of 800 "intensive" personal
computers users found that more than 25% previously lost "signi-
ficant" amounts of data and half expect their company to sustain
a serious loss sooner or later, according to 3M.  Data loss is
construed to mean the accidental, negligent or mischievous des-
truction of information contained on a computer's disk drive or
system memory.  The nationwide survey was conducted by Intelli-
Quest, an Austin, Texas-based market research firm, at a cost to
3M of $250,000. It is the most extensive look to date at the
behavior of computer users toward data protection, according to
IntelliQuest and 3M. 3M conducted a similar study in 1987, with
similar results.  3M is a leading supplier of magnetic tape and a
pioneer developer of tape drives that use its standard quarter-
inch tape cartridges.  The majority of survey respondents used a
standard PC with an Intel Corp. microprocessor and MS-DOS operat-
ing system with disk drive capacity of less than 120 megabytes.
They typically used their PCs about five hours a day. About half
were linked to a network.  Half of those store critical data on
the network, while a third say they store data on their PC's hard
disk.  Of the network managers surveyed, about half said they
perform incremental backups once a day. A fourth said they per-
formed a complete network backup once a day, while 36% said they
did so only once a week. The average network stored 1.7 gigabytes
of data.  That suggests that lots of new data resides on the disk
drives at users' desks, and this data may not get backed up for a
full week.

"That's where corporations are vulnerable," said Ray Freeman,
president of Freeman Associates Inc., a tape drive market
research firm in Santa Barbara, Calif. "That is not the case in
mainframe-based data centers. They practice rigorous backup." On
average, survey respondents said it takes a full work week to
re-create computer-based data that was lost or destroyed. They
estimated the cost of replacing lost data at $10,000 to $100,000
per incident, with some occurrences substantially higher.

In addition to the salaries of those assigned to re-create and
restore data, added costs might involve lost business opportuni-
ties while new work is delayed and computers are taken off-line
for the restoration.

"Small businesses are the most vulnerable," said Stevens, "be-
cause the value of their data sometimes exceeds the net worth of
the company."

Data can be destroyed or lost for a variety of reasons, including
user error, sabotage, computer hardware breakdowns and power
failure.  Disk drive manufacturers claim their products won't
fail for 20 years under typical conditions. But disk drives some-
times do break down prematurely. Data can also be destroyed by
natural disasters or from those pesky computer "viruses," which
can erase entire disks.  Said IntelliQuest Chief Executive Peter
Zandan: "The need to back up data is better understood than ever
before, but the numbers indicate that few U.S. companies have
formal policies to protect themselves from massive data loss."
More than 65% of survey respondents said they do not back up
their data, despite the widespread availability of inexpensive,
feature-rich tape drives. Sixty-three percent said their company
did not have a formal backup policy. Of the 32% that did, 11%
said the backup policies were not regularly enforced. The remain-
ing 4% did not know if their company had a policy to back up
data.  The most popular form of backup employed by personal com-
puter users is the "minicartridge" tape drive, which fits into a
standard 31/2-inch PC peripheral bay. An entry-level minicar-
tridge drive costs about $250 retail, and a single tape car-
tridge, the size of a card deck, will store 120 megabytes.  About
1.2 million minicartridge drives will ship this year, up from
900,000 units last year, Freeman Associates reports.  A larger
and older cousin to the minicartridge drive is the quarter-inch
"cartridge" tape drive, which fits into a 51/4-inch PC bay. About
883,000 cartridge drives will ship this year, up from 841,000
last year, Freeman says. New versions of cartridge drives can
store more than two gigabytes of information, making them ideal
for the backup of network servers.  Two other popular forms of
tape backup devices are 4mm and 8mm tape drives, which employ a
unique helical scan recording device, similar to that found in
home video recorders. Like the quarter- inch cartridge drives,
the helical scan drives cost several thousand dollars. They are
used primarily to back up workstations, computer networks and
minicomputers.

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