What's Sex Got To Do With It?

6:40 PM -- It doesn't matter how much lipstick you put on this pig.

You can't dress tape up. You can't take it out. But can you pay more attention to it, for cryin' out loud? You know--put on a clean shirt, sit down and ask how its day was? Honestly, after all it does for you.

Encryption vendor DisUK Ltd. tells us in a recent survey it paid for that users are ignoring tape backup at their peril. (See Tape Security Trips Up Users.) I don't doubt that conclusion, especially once I get sufficient distance from the deafening roar of a vendor axe being ground.

But the real coup de grace (French for firebombed Peugeot) here comes from a user quoted in our story. Hitting the nail on the head, Mark Beasley of systems integrator Baker Hill proclaims, "The problem is that tape is not sexy."

I can hear the data center door slamming now. Cue the stormy silence. Flowers or candy aren't going to make this any better.Terry Sweeney, Editor in Chief, Byte and Switch