Question of the Month: Why aren't you encrypting your backup tapes?

"Before encrypting, we need to do a cost analysis of the impact to user applications and the cost of the technology itself."
--Jason Pruitt, senior system administrator, Memphis, TN

"Yes, we are! We're using an IBM TS3584 tape library. This type of encryption is not done by software, but at the hardware level, and works great."
--Jimmy Touchstone, senior systems engineer, Mississippi Baptist Health Systems, Jackson, MS

"We're looking at a possible upgrade to our physical tape hardware that will do it for us."
--Chris Petersen, Unix engineer, Forest Pharmaceuticals, St. Louis, MO

"By this time next year, after a tape density upgrade, we will have migrated to IBM 3592-E05 tape drives. When management caught wind that these drives support encryption, they jumped on the bandwagon."
--Jeff Nast, senior systems administrator, SMDC Health System, Duluth, MN