Tao Of Backup Wailing Wall Story
The fireproof safe trap
This story was told to me by a repersentative from an offiste storage company, but I have no doubt it really happened.
A small manufacturing company had its headquarters in one of those shared industral complexes. They backed up each day, and kept all thier tapes in a "fireproof" safe. The safe was rated fireproof for for 2 hours continuous fire.
One day the unit next door to them caught fire. The safe was located on the other side of the wall from the fire. Although our hero's unit was not damaged in any way, when they opened thier safe the next day, thier entire backup set had reformed into a single block of plastic the shape of the safe.
Fireproof safes are rated fireproof by how long it takes the interior to reach the burning point of paper, 451F, rather than the melting point of plastic, about 90F.
The rep from the offsite storage company uses the plastic block as a talking piece at trade shows.
The moral of the story:
Don't think your fireproof safe protects your data. Offiste backup is still a must!
Mark LambertAnonymous
Alexandria VA, USA,
Thu 23-Oct-2003 7:08pm
