Will GDPR Kill Tape backup?

Are you still holding personal data on tape? You'll soon have to figure a way of removing or transferring this data to a more modern platform. In the event you are requested by a EU citizen to erase, transfer or give back their data. Under GDPR It'll be a legal right of the individual to ask these things. As well as it being mandatory for every organisation to have these data processes in place by May 2018.

For many organisations, tape still represents their backup and archiving strategy (more than 45% we believe,) and in some cases their disaster recovery capabilities too. This is due to its low cost and scale making it the default choice.

Other technologies, approaches and now cloud based services are more effective, efficient and in some cases cheaper. However based on the effort and perhaps not a strong enough compelling argument, have not been enough to effect this change.

GDPR may well be the catalyst that now makes this happen.

For any organisation holding backup data on tape this is going to be, in some case very challenging. As they will have the usual operational issues of restoring, retrieving, backing up and validating for every single request and it could send IT departments into overload.

Not forgetting that the tapes could be held off site with a logistics provider. Hopefully you have a decent SLA with that can identify the required tape(s) to present back to you.

If you have recently upgraded or changed your backup software and/or hardware or no longer have the required tape drive to read the tape, let alone it not being corrupted, further challenges will then unfold.

We believe that a lot of organisations will have to review their backup/archive strategies and either migrate to disk or cloud or maybe both and use a variety of tools to address this.

The regulation is very clear in terms of time scales once a SAR (Subject Access Request) is received; as well as the impending penalties for non-compliance. If the individual feels they need to also advise the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) of this request.

Yes it is another issues to address. Although it is better to have done this than face the consequences and avoid any further escalation.

So will GDPR kill tape, well it will certainly reduce its reliance especially if it holds personal data.

If you are unsure on how to make your transition from tape? We can aid you in your journey towards GDPR compliance, click here to book a call with one of our consultants. Alternatively contact us here.