Although Fibre Channel SANs offer robust and reliable backup capabilities, local storage of tapes or local tapeless backup systems do not protect against a catastrophic site failure. For maximum data protection and availability, businesses need the ability to back up their data at an off-site location. But physically moving tapes to an off-site vault has several limitations, and many existing solutions to connect local storage with remote backup systems over networks do not provide adequate performance or flexibility. This white paper addresses the dilemma of backing up over distance and discusses the FCIP solution. (2001)