Backup is an essential, integral part of any storage architecture and must be planned and rolled out at the same time as the primary storŽage. It must also meet the same criteria for cost, performance, reliability and expand ability as the primary storage. Backup covers two major functions, the ability to restore the files and database of the company in the case of catastrophic failure of the primary storage and the ability to make copies of essential data for infrequent access for business, regulatory or legal reasons.

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The usual reasons considered for failure are "earthquake, fire and flood" but in fact the more likely reaŽsons are equipment failure, software failure, viruses and worms, human error and deliberate sabotage. SMEs are more vulnerable to human error and sabotage since equipment is often in an open oft~e environment and is maintained by inexperienced staff. The archive function sometimes uses the same tape drive as the backup function but recently the trend in companies large and small has been to make frequent backup copies to a separate backup disk device allowing rapid disk-speed backup and restore, and to use tapes only for archival purposes. It will also be prudent to move backup and archived information on tapes to an offŽsite remote location to safeguard against local disasters.