Water Main Break Puts Tape Operations at Risk
A major U.S. health benefits provider encountered a water main break in their main, tape processing data center.
Initially undetected, water collecting under their raised floor gradually affected the operating conditions of their automated tape environment. Humidity levels increased until they exceeded the wet bulb maximum, putting petabytes of stored data for its customers and employees potentially at risk.
Prudently, the customer shut down tape operations until it could be determined whether tape devices and drives could be safely and properly operated.
The customer called in PeakData Services to leverage their expertise in enterprise tape technologies to perform a technical assessment of a statistically significant sample of tapes. The tapes included Sun Microsystems 9840, 9940 and T10000 cartridges to determine the short and long-term reliability of the media after exposure to the increased humidity.
PeakData Services received the tapes in their secure, clean room facility. Upon receipt, the tapes were visually inspected for damage and exposure to water or other contamination. After visual inspection, the tapes were allowed to acclimatize to the environment for twenty-four (24) hours per the manufacturer’s specifications.
At that point the tapes were mounted on compatible Sun Microsystems tape drives for read testing. Based on the visual inspection and read testing, it was concluded that the tapes had not been adversely impacted by the prolonged exposure to high humidity.
Further, it was concluded that going forward the tapes should perform according to specifications and achieve their projected magnetic life of 15 – 30 years in a normal operating environment.
As a result, the customer was able to resume normal tape operations quickly and with peace of mind.