Data Backup technology refresher?

[NetWareHead]

Could one of you guys help with this question? Years ago I was in charge of backups/restores at a previous employer and havent touched this area of IT in a long time. We used BackupEXEC writing to LTO tapes with a robotic library. Nice setup, back then.

It looks like the project I am tasked with creating is going to have me handling backup/restores all over again and Im just wondering where has the data backup "field" gone to since then.

I would think that nobody uses tapes anymore. Was always frustrated with the long backup windows needed due to slow speed of the tape. What kind of media are we using nowadays?

How do you guys deal with open files? Remember back in the day we had to kick all users off of the system and lock them out until the following morning to ensure all files were closed so they could be picked up by backupexec. Not going to fly in a 24/7 environment I have to deal with now. Thanks...

 

[Elixer]

On Windows 7+/server, you basically have shadow volume copies, so, no need to worry about files in use.
It really depends on how big of a storage pool you got, some still use tape, others have rotating pool of HDs, then there is (encrypted) cloud backup, and the list goes on.
It also depends on how often you need backups in case of an emergency to get back up and running ASAP. Think malware/virus hits production servers, and you need to wipe everything, and restore from backups. (Yes, you do need a test environment to test those backups!).