[Lurker]

What do you mean by “online”? Mission critical data is a heck of a lot more secure in a SAS certified data center than it is on a hunk of tape in the back seat of someone’s car.

[ColdSteelTalon]

Virtual tape in the same data center is what I am referring to when I say on-line. We have a requirement that backups have to be kept at a separate physical location. We have a professional off-site storage company that handles our media that is fully certified for handling and storing tape and other media. So its not really as you say an option that we keep our backups in the back of someones car.

Of course you can backup your data to virtual tape in another data center but that is a huge expense that some companies do not want to get into.