I'm currently running a small to medium sized network consisting of approx. 40 workstations and 30 servers (both physical and virtual) consisting of various versions of Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and a single Thecus N5200 Pro. My current backup solution consists of Backup Exec 11D and an HP Storageworks DAT72 tape drive. Backups are done nightly and are currently at 54 GB although there is an additional 100 GB that I would like to add on to that job. The job is not incremental or differential, it is a straight backup of everything to a single tape. Wednesday's tape is taken off-site for 3 months after which it is returned and archived permanently. Thursdays tape is archived on-site for 3 months. Monday, Tuesday, and Friday's tapes are reused each week. Backups are not done Saturday or Sunday because employees have weekends off and very little changes occur during this time.
I would like to rebuild this backup solution in terms of more storage volume and less human intervention. These two items have led me to research HP's StorageWorks 1/8 G2 Tape Autoloader.
My question is: If we were to go with the G2 (using LTO-3 tapes initially), what changes would you make to my current backup solution? This could involve reducing the number of tapes ($$), incremental or differential backup job, ease of restoration, permanent storage, temporary off-site storage. The size of the backup job would start at 154 GB and would not exceed 400 GB for at least 3-4 years at the earliest.
If you have a solution that involves different technology/approach please feel free to post as I am interested in all possible solutions to this problem.