"It's very easy to say the backup should be tested, there should be mirrored recovery systems etc"
I've been doing Unix backups for about 27 years. Back when it was more of a pain then it was in 1998 and certainly today. Total backup, incremental tapes the whole thing. Taking the tapes offsite. I wasn't a sysadmin but it was my business. So if I didn't have a backup it would be my problem and my loss both in work and money. I can assure you that setting up a backup plan (key word "plan") that evaluates the cost and trouble is worth it. The only reason higher ups don't approve of this is that they don't know about what can happen if something fails.
Ask yourself this question. Do you think Pixar changed their backup process after this event? I think they probably did. Not only because the failure happened to them but also because higher ups saw what could have happen if not for the woman who wanted to be with her child at home who saved the project in process.
I've been doing Unix backups for about 27 years. Back when it was more of a pain then it was in 1998 and certainly today. Total backup, incremental tapes the whole thing. Taking the tapes offsite. I wasn't a sysadmin but it was my business. So if I didn't have a backup it would be my problem and my loss both in work and money. I can assure you that setting up a backup plan (key word "plan") that evaluates the cost and trouble is worth it. The only reason higher ups don't approve of this is that they don't know about what can happen if something fails.
Ask yourself this question. Do you think Pixar changed their backup process after this event? I think they probably did. Not only because the failure happened to them but also because higher ups saw what could have happen if not for the woman who wanted to be with her child at home who saved the project in process.