However, this service is not intended to provide a complete disaster recovery service. In your data is sensitive it should be encrypted using any of the commonly available tools, such as PGP , before it is backed up. Tapes are often left lying around and can get stolen. If there is going to be any major changes to your hardware, backup your data first. If you are going to upgrade your operating system, application software or apply fixes to correct problems, backup your data first.
Tapes can become dirty and wear out.
Budget for some new tapes each year. Tape drives can also have problems, some, such as DAT drives, will keep track of how long they have been used and insist on a cleaning cycle every so often. Cleaning tapes have a very limited life and should be replaced as they reach the end of that life. This is a good way to determine that the backup hardware is actually working correctly. Most backup software can use the verification facility to keep track of the number of tape read errors that occur and will often recommend that a particularly poor tape with large numbers of errors should be replaced.