Backup Tape Technology Delivers Higher Operating Efficiency And Long Term Reliability Than Disk Medi

By Author: Frank Miller
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For data administrators, the question is not to install a backup storage system, but to adopt the best economical solution that delivers long-term archiving, fast data access and ensures regulatory compliance.

The two major backup technologies being used today are disk and tape-based systems. The IT managers can make a quality decision as a comparison of both these backup systems has been made in this article. The performance, cost efficiency, robustness and archival life of tape media technology are pretty compelling. The acquisition cost of tape-based system is substantially lower, whereas the operating cost in long term (5 years) are almost 7 times lesser than backup disk technologies. It is more than the economical operational expenses that attracts the data-rich companies to tape media technology. For easy portability, seamless scalability, safe off-site storage and robust data security, companies will keep turning to backup tape technology.

A wide range of tape media technologies are available in the market, but the most popular are DDS, AIT, SDLT, VXA, Travan, LTO ultrium and SLR-MLR. Market share of ...
... LTO (Linear Tape Open) is the highest, as it offers multi-vendor interoperability. Some of the best selling LTO tapes are 09W084 (Dell LTO-1), 26220001 (Fuji LTO-2), D2406-LTO3 (TDK LTO-3), 183906 (Maxell LTO-4) and C7975A (HP LTO-5).

Let’s compare the capacity of disk and tape formats. The disk technology took the lead, when the 2TB SATA hard disks were launched. But thanks to the ultra-high capacity LTO5 technology, the tape regained its top position with a tremendous 3 TB capacity.

In addition, the tape formats also feature the ability to compress data, thus further accelerating the data throughput speed and enhancing the storage capacity.

Tape cartridges are durable, portable and can be safely moved to remote sites, which is important in off-site data storage. Backup media tapes provide the data administrators a comfort zone. You are confident that data can be reliably archived for longer time duration, most probably 10 to 30 years. Tape storage technology also outperforms disk format in terms of data throughput speed. The RDX disk-based system achieves a backup speed of 108GB/hour. The LTO tape drives are much faster that achieve faster data rates of more than 100 MB/second. The newest LTO5 drives backup data at a tremendous rate of 1 TB per hour.

Privacy and data security objective can also be met efficiently with tape media technology. Data encryption functionality is supported by the LTO ultrium5 and LTO4 formats. In addition, the WORM technology features in AIT5, AIT-4, AIT3, LTO4, LTO5 and LTO ultrium3 tape formats. The disks keep on spinning even if the data is not being accessed, which means that they consume energy every moment. On the other hand, tape drive will move the storage medium when the data needs to be stored or retrieved. Therefore, tape media format is most cost-efficient for long term archiving.

So we can easily conclude that tape media technology is the top performer in terms of robustness, reliability, data security and storage performance. The disk storage system cannot match the high-capacity, durability and cost efficiency of tape-based system.

Product and software names mentioned throughout this article are trademarks and are sole property of their owners.

Frank Miller is the Marketing Manager of Backuptape and markets 09W084 and 26220001. He has vast experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping buyers who have the backup needs and guide clients about the technology.

Frank Miller
3984 Washington Blvd #503 Fremont CA 94538
Tel: 888-686-8273
Fax: 888-449-5050
Email: sales@backuptapes.net