Unfortunately, even that is not enough, in the long run.
You have to periodically retest your backups, and transfer them to new media as they age.
It's also a good idea to store backups off-site (preferably in multiple geographically-dispersed locations).
And, it almost goes without saying that the more frequently you do backups, the less data you'll lose when you actually have to restore from them.
Before long, it's a full time job just to keep the backup system humming along smoothly, testing and retesting backups, and transferring them from old media to new.
Of course, this problem gets a lot harder and more time consuming as the quantity of data you need to backup/restore grows.
I keep reading about the crazy amounts of data generated by projects like the LHC, and my mind boggles at what the challenges in doing backups of that amount of data must be like.
Unfortunately, even that is not enough, in the long run.
You have to periodically retest your backups, and transfer them to new media as they age.
It's also a good idea to store backups off-site (preferably in multiple geographically-dispersed locations).
And, it almost goes without saying that the more frequently you do backups, the less data you'll lose when you actually have to restore from them.
Before long, it's a full time job just to keep the backup system humming along smoothly, testing and retesting backups, and transferring them from old media to new.
Of course, this problem gets a lot harder and more time consuming as the quantity of data you need to backup/restore grows.
I keep reading about the crazy amounts of data generated by projects like the LHC, and my mind boggles at what the challenges in doing backups of that amount of data must be like.