How do you physically transport your backup media?

I currently back up to LTO-3 tapes, and I'm about to cross the threshold where a full backup will not fit on a single tape any more; the weekly and monthly backups will span two tapes. Well, I realized today that I'm going to need a bigger bag, so my question is this:

What kind of container do you use to physically transport backup media, especially tapes? Most important is that it protects the tapes from the elements to some degree (moisture, being bumped). Some kind of organizational scheme would be nice as well, instead of having to rifle through all of the tapes when I want to find one.

I've also been thinking about physical security lately. If somebody wanted to get access to our company data, the weakest link would be me carrying tapes to and from my car. Is this a concern that anybody else shares, and what have you done to alleviate it?

Solution 1:

We use Iron Mountain tape vaulting services. The tapes are transported in a locked container that is somewhat weather-proof and foam lined. There is a specific chain of custody regarding this procedure. They're then transported to an offsite tape-vaulting location in an unmarked and alarmed van.

I surely hope that you guys aren't taking your backup tapes home with you.

Edited to add: Taking them home with you because you're an awesome I.T. guy and trying to be nice, opens you up to a world of hurt when and if that tape gets "lost" or stolen. But, it also depends on what you're backing up. Is it SS#? Is it credit card information? How valuable is the data to someone who would use it for nefarious purposes? (Don't really answer what kind of data it is in this public forum..just questions you need to ask yourself :) )

If this company is too cheap to pay for some other method of getting backups offsite, then make the owner of the company take the tapes home with him/her.

If there are no tape vaulting services in your area, Iron Mountain (Mozy, Amazon S3 with JungleDisk, etc.) offer online backups into the cloud. We are in the process of moving our physical tape backups to cloud based with Iron Mountain, called Live Vault. We're also making use of their Turbo Restore Appliance, which facilitates everyday backups and restores for around 30 days. The rest gets backed up into their cloud. It fits our needs because it's automated AND encrypted. While it's not inexpensive, the loss of business in a disaster, without proper backups to restore to, would be astronomical.

Solution 2:

I highly recommend Pelican cases. They're virtually indestructible, and waterproof, they even float if dropped in the water. I don't currently use them for tapes but have done so in the past. I've also used them for photography equipment. You can even drive a truck over it.

A nice feature of the Pelican cases is that they come with "pick and pluck" foam so you can have custom shaped padding inside for whatever it is you're carrying.