W. Lawrence Wescott looks to address what companies should expect when handling backup tapes during the eDiscovery process in his article Shedding Light on Backup Tape E-Discovery.

Items addressed in the article include:

• A look at the original intent of backups -- Disaster Recovery
• A look at the common use of backups -- Data History
• Backup tapes subject to eDiscovery (duty to preserve, storage & tape costs, data collecting, culling, review, retention and spoliation)
  
• Accessible or not?
• Strategies to minimize risk

This article is a great overview of backup tapes and the role they play in eDiscovery and definitely worth reading and sharing.

If you would like more information about backup tapes (the ins-&-outs, the different types of media, restoration times, etc), visit eMag's resources page.  We have links, whitepapers, you name it, everything you ever wanted to know (and some things you didn't) about backup tapes.