As an example of why this is so important, consider a classic case: Amazon's May 1997 database snafu, documented by Jeremiah Wilton at http://www.bluegecko.net/

As an example of why this is so important, consider a classic case: Amazon's May 1997 database snafu, documented by Jeremiah Wilton at http://www.bluegecko.net/news-events/new-whitepaper-the-dba-disaster-diary-double-failure/ http://www.bluegecko.net/news-events/new-whitepaper-the-dba-... Frequent automated restoration and testing of database backups would have avoided the downtime. Amazon would have noticed the Oracle bug soon after the extents change, and would have had a chance to identify and work around it before taking down the production database for routine maintenance. Furthermore, by using their backup DEC storage array for the routine backup restoration tests, they would have identified their new DEC storage array as faulty before they put it into production use.