 |
 |
I'm looking for wall-mounted Nema enclosures that can be used to store DLT tapes. Currently, part of my weekly routine is to rotate some of our backup tapes to off-site storage, where "off-site" is a building a few hundred yards away from the one where our network backup system is located. After I'm done with all the changes and improvements I have in mind, it could be that we'll be storing as many as 80 DLT tapes in each location. We already have about 70 DLT tapes in use. Anyhow, I figure that the risk of a fire or tornado destroying both buildings and the tapes in them is pretty low. I don't see that we could afford to buy fire resistant cabinets to hold that many tapes. I think we're doing more to handle risk by using two locations than we would by buying fire resistant cabinets. However, water damage from sprinklers or fire hoses is much more likely than damage from fire and I'm thinking it would be worthwhile storing the tapes in water resistant enclosures. I see that enclosures rated as Nema 4 are intended to provide some protection against "hosedown and splashing water." Most of these enclosures that I've identified so far are intended for electrical equipment, and are fairly expensive. It's nothing like the cost of fire resistant cabinets, but I'm cheap and would rather spend money on toys than on boxes. It occurred to me that maybe I should try to benefit from other people's experience before buying anything. Here are questions: Is Nema 4 really the way to go? Can anyone recommend a good source of boxes and/or shelf-type racks? (I'm thinking of boxes about 6" x 24" x 24" , in which I can put four internal shelves. That's not quite enough for 80 tapes, but it's probably close enough. I prefer the type of arrangement where I can open the cabinet and see all the tape labels, and remove individual tapes without disturbing others.) Am I overly paranoid? Insufficiently paranoid? Are there other questions I ought to be asking? John Gorentz W.K. Kellogg Biological Station