Computer backup and removable storage media were once considered a consumable, which could be ordered, interchangeably used and thrown away with little to no special consideration.

Today, however, as media has increased in storage capacity and reliability they can no longer be considered as a consumable, today, each item of media is very much an individual asset of the enterprise.

This can be demonstrated by the fact that, while many enterprises lease almost all other critical technologies such as mainframes, software, servers and laptops, they continue to own their backup media outside of cloud backup services.

• Every backup media item must be added to the asset management system at the point that it is ordered, or discovered.
• Every backup media item must have a unique Volume serial number and that where possible that Volume serial number is tied to the manufacturer’s serial number or CM Chip.
• That where multiple backup media item ownership exists within the asset management system that the ownership of the tape is recorded.
• Every backup media item should have a single fixed visual label attached. This label should remain constant for the life of the media and should be attached to the media itself and never the media case.
• That all stakeholders in the media management chain should know each media item as the same single Volume serial number.
• Where possible the asset management system should be connected to all media management systems within the enterprise.

• Number of media items not in the asset management system.
• Number of media with duplicate primary identifiers.
• Number of media with more than one identifier.
• Number of active media not electronically synchronized between the asset management system and distributed media or tape management systems for more than one day.
• Number of active media existing in distributed media or tape management systems but not in the asset management system, or the other way around.