Tier 2 is based on the Hitachi Thunder 9585V modular storage system and holds about 48 million historic title documents, which Fidelity can use the next time those properties are sold.

Tier 3 also runs on the Hitachi Thunder 9585V, which is formatted as a virtual tape drive. Fidelity streams this drive to a regular Spectra Logic tape drive, and the tapes are sent off-site, Amble said.

The tapes are part of Fidelity's extensive disaster recovery plan, which includes mirrored Tier 1 systems in Chicago and Little Rock, Ark., connected with an OC3 link.

A combination of Hitachi and Oracle software replicates the data between the two sites. Backup tapes are sent from Chicago to Little Rock to the off-site storage.

"The worst possible data loss would be 30 minutes," Amble said. In a catastrophe where both Chicago and Little Rock went down, which he said is "really unlikely," the company could re-create its data with the tape backup.