What is an air gap, exactly?

No network interface at all. Media in the vault is not connected to anything, so it cannot be reached, encrypted, or deleted from the outside. Not "logically separated" — physically unreachable.

Do you replace our cloud backup?

No, and you should be suspicious of anyone who says yes. Cloud is your fast tier. The vault copy is for the day the cloud account itself is the problem.

Do you access our data?

Never. We take custody of sealed physical media. We have no drives, we do not mount cartridges, and we do not open boxes.

How fast can we get media back?

Scheduled rotations run daily, weekly, or monthly. Contracted clients also get 24/7 emergency retrieval outside the schedule.

Does using you make us compliant?

No. Storage cannot make you compliant. It provides the physical custody and evidence layer your program relies on. Our compliance pages say exactly where that line sits.

Priced per cartridge, per drive, or per box, with a monthly minimum. Bring your rotation schedule and inventory and we will quote against the real numbers.

South Florida · B2B media custody

The one backup copy ransomware cannot reach.

Every connected copy is reachable, and modern ransomware hunts backups first. A tape in a 9R vault with no network interface is the copy that is still there afterwards — held at 70°F and 50% humidity, with a barcode custody record for every handoff.

Book a vault walkthrough Call (954) 565-7233

Bring your retention schedule. We will tell you what it actually costs to meet it.

Air-gapped

No network connection. Ransomware cannot reach it.

70°F / 50%

Climate held to ±2° and ±5% RH

Highest UL vault rating available

40+

Years operating since 1983

The case

Why an offline copy still exists in 2026

The only backup ransomware cannot encrypt

Every connected copy is reachable, and modern ransomware hunts backups first — it dwells for weeks, corrupts the replicas, then triggers. A tape sitting in a vault with no network interface is the one copy that cannot be touched from the outside.

Climate that matters more than you think

LTO tape is rated for decades at 70°F and 50% relative humidity. In a South Florida server room that loses cooling over a long weekend, that rating means nothing. Our media vault holds ±2°F and ±5% RH continuously.

Chain of custody you can hand to an auditor

Barcode scanning at every handoff — client door to courier to vault and back. Every movement is timestamped and signed. When an auditor asks where a specific tape was in March, that is a query, not an investigation.

Geographic separation that is actually separate

A second copy in the same building, or the same flood zone, is not a second copy. We are a hardened 9R vault rated through Category 5 conditions — deliberately not co-located with the data centers we serve.

The full ransomware argument, including where cloud immutability actually helps →

Services

What we vault

LTO Tape Vaulting

Tape is genuinely offline once it leaves the drive. Kept at stable temperature, with every barcode reconciled at intake.

Hard Drive & SSD Storage

Drives pulled from a retired array end up in an office cabinet. Here they are logged by serial and stored sealed.

Server & Rack Component Storage

A decommissioned server still holds data. Shelved, logged by asset tag, released only to the people you name.

Physical Records Storage

Boxes logged against your own index and shelved rather than stacked. Paper is the medium water ruins first.

Scheduled Courier Rotation

An offsite copy only counts if it goes offsite. A scheduled collection, signed at both ends, every cycle.

Witnessed Media Destruction

A destruction certificate for a job nobody watched proves nothing. Media is verified against the list before anything is destroyed.

Disaster Recovery Vaulting

Two sites inside the same surge zone are one site to a hurricane. Separation is measured by basin and grid.

Industries

Who we do it for

Law Firms

Closed matters carry duties that outlive the hardware. Boxes and media are logged against the firm's own index, which stays yours.

Medical Practices

Legacy charts and imaging outlive the systems that wrote them. Stored sealed; we do not open, index or read anything.

Accounting Firms

A year of files gets boxed in a hurry during season. A scheduled post-season collection is the version that survives.

Financial Services

An examiner asks where a record was held and who touched it. That is a custody question, and it needs a record.

Insurance Agencies

The storm that generates the claims is the storm that takes the office. Policy files have to be reachable anyway.

Government Contractors

Handling and destruction requirements arrive through flow-down clauses, and you are audited against them. Custody you can show an auditor.

Compliance

Where compliance ends and custody begins

Storage cannot make you compliant. Anyone selling you "compliant storage" as a finished product is overstating what storage does.

What custody actually provides is the physical safeguard and the evidence: where media was, who moved it, when, and proof it was destroyed at end of retention. That is a real contribution to a program, and it is the only thing we claim. Each framework page states plainly what we do and do not do.

HIPAA

No vendor is HIPAA compliant on your behalf. What custody adds is evidence of where media was and who moved it.

FINRA & SEC Books and Records

The duration is the easy part. Form and speed of production are where firms usually find the gap.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)

Auditors test whether a control operated, not whether it was described. A custody log is evidence that survives testing.

PCI DSS

Scope follows cardholder data wherever it actually lives, including a forgotten box of old backup media.

Florida Records Retention

There is no single Florida retention period. Obligations arrive from counsel, regulators and contracts, and they rarely line up.

Alternatives

Honest comparisons

Air-Gapped Vault vs. Cloud-Only Backup

Cloud backup is faster, cheaper per terabyte, and easier to test. It is also reachable, and that is the whole argument.

Vaulted Tape vs. Tape Kept On Site

You already own the tapes. The question is only where they sleep, and whether the same event can take both the systems and the backups.

Local Vault vs. a National Records Vendor

The national vendors are competent and enormous, and for a multi-state footprint they are usually the right call. For a South Florida business the trade is different.

Media Vault vs. a Self-Storage Unit

It happens more than you would think — a unit down the road, a padlock, and a box of tapes. It fails on three separate grounds.

Areas served

Scheduled routes across 6 business districts

Fort Lauderdale Plantation Boca Raton West Palm Beach Hollywood Coral Gables

Common questions

What is an air gap, exactly?: No network interface at all. Media in the vault is not connected to anything, so it cannot be reached, encrypted, or deleted from the outside. Not "logically separated" — physically unreachable.
Do you replace our cloud backup?: No, and you should be suspicious of anyone who says yes. Cloud is your fast tier. The vault copy is for the day the cloud account itself is the problem.
Do you access our data?: Never. We take custody of sealed physical media. We have no drives, we do not mount cartridges, and we do not open boxes.
How fast can we get media back?: Scheduled rotations run daily, weekly, or monthly. Contracted clients also get 24/7 emergency retrieval outside the schedule.
Does using you make us compliant?: No. Storage cannot make you compliant. It provides the physical custody and evidence layer your program relies on. Our compliance pages say exactly where that line sits.
What does it cost?: Priced per cartridge, per drive, or per box, with a monthly minimum. Bring your rotation schedule and inventory and we will quote against the real numbers.

Visit us

Come and see the media vault

Address: 3562 N Ocean Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
Galt Ocean Mile
Hours: Mon–Fri 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Phone: (954) 565-7233

Get directions

Read our Google reviews — worth a look before you hand anyone your property.

Tours are by appointment

You are welcome to see the vault before you decide anything. Tours are private and booked in advance — you will see the door, the man-trap entry and the box room, and nobody else will be walking through.

We are on the Galt Ocean Mile, on North Ocean Boulevard between Oakland Park Boulevard and Commercial Boulevard. If you are crossing one of the Intracoastal bridges, allow a few extra minutes — an opening adds ten.

No account relationship is required to visit. Call(954) 565-7233 and we will put a time aside.

See the vault before you decide.

Tours are private and by appointment. You will see the vault door, the man-trap entry, and the box sizes in person. No account relationship is required to visit.

Book a vault walkthrough Call (954) 565-7233