Yes, Google backs up to tape. I've seen it done and helped design the training for the process. As of 2019 it was a robust backup process with a pain in the butt restore process. It can and will be done, but it's not fast or easy.

How frequently do they back up to tape? (if this is something you can share)

Varies by product. In general, it is a continuous process, and backups may not be 'point in time'.

> As of 2019 it was a robust backup process with a pain in the butt restore process.

Would love some more insight on this! Anything or any article you can share on how this is implemented at such scale?

When I was there Google used multiple Sun/StorageTek tape libraries at each datacenter. The robots handled much of it, but there was still a lot of manual tape loading and unloading performed by technicians. Once tapes were full they were unloaded and hauled off to a secure third-party facility.

They're still sold by Oracle, as far as I can tell: https://www.oracle.com/storage/tape-storage/#rc30p5

This is out of date; Google avoids tape exactly because the restore process sucks.

Don't worry, they backed it up to Google Drive

Fair point, but so should the user.

This is a good reminder to everyone: Your cloud data still needs backing up.

Google’s desktop sync doesn’t actually download googles own files, just files in other formats like pdf. Do you launch a Google takeout request from a from job?

Well, that’s an argument against using file formats that are locked in to a cloud service.

Yep. Cloud storage gives you too many ways out if you make a mistake (recycle bin, revision history) that it kind of hides the fact that it's not a replacement for backups. Plus, you can always get hacked.

3-2-1 guys!

They can always ask NSA.

they had, in May. hahah. But really, why May is a cutoff date? Will we ever get a bug explanation, I wonder.