Yeah, as you probably know - a RAID isn't a backup. Yes it's redundant, but if you lose the RAID, .. well you know.

I understand your concerns about opening ports etc, when using Internet based links (which are real concerns), as opposed to private IP-VPN's where you then don't need to worry about ports at all ($$), which is ideally what you want to be doing if possible.

I have inherited a few remote sites which have the need for backups, but there is never anyone on site to manage the tapes (plus taking them off-site). I have setup Shadow Protect (With Shadow Stream), so backups are taken of my data, then streamed back to my primary site which then hit tape.

This can be timed and bandwidth throttled too.

That is an ideal solution IMHO as you:

- Have one management points for disk to tape
- Are taking the backups offsite over the wire
- Don't need any human interaction at remote sites

I do know people that are doing this using Shadow Protect across Internet based links and have been successful, but you obviously want a reasonable amount of upload bandwidth, eg: SHDSL/Midband Ethernet type connection.

Shadow Protect also have a Cloud solution too:

http://www.storagecraft.com.au/cloudservices/

I would recommend this. It's a Sydney based DC, to which they have been talking about 100Gig links and epic epic amounts of storage.