Re: [9fans] [reminder] pointer to Plan 9 FAQ

[Dan Cross <cross@math.psu.edu>]

In article <20010920220326.E8D86199E8@mail.cse.psu.edu> you write:
>Backups are dead.  Put your data on multiple machines
>and assume that not all of them will lose your data
>simultaneously.

Yeah, sure, as long as those machines are physically dispersed.  In
which case you can non-trivial time overhead for replicating and
synchronizing the data (consider a multi-terabyte financial database
with millions of transactions per day; like one of the ones that used
to be 5 blocks from my office [many continue to be 1 block away].  Not
that that's anywhere near the most important thing right now).

Not to mention the monetary cost associated with the communications
infrastructure needed to support the synchronization and replication of
said multi-terabyte financial databases.

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a van full of AIT2 tapes...nor
their value for disaster recovery.  Backups, particularly off-site
ones, are still essential.

	- Dan C.