Backup Tape Formats Are More Durable And Cost-efficient Than Disk Storage Systems

By Author: Frank Miller
Total Articles: 598
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A reliable disaster recovery program has become the lifeblood of all types of companies. On the other hand, the government and industry regulations enforce the organizations to preserve their valuable data like financial documents, sales data, tax records, employee record etc. Disk and tape-based systems are the major technologies used for backup storage. The data administrators often get confused when selecting the backup storage technology. Therefore for your convenience, I have made a comparison between disk and tape systems that will help you in making a quality decision.

Tape storage technology has a solid history and is more durable, intelligent and economical than hard disk backup formats. Acquisition cost of disk format is almost 75% higher than tape-based system. Furthermore, the tape technology provides up to 7 times reduction in operational expenses over a time span of 5 years.

SATA, RAID and RDX cartridge are few of the leading hard disk backup formats. Tape storage industry’s leading formats are AIT, DDS-DAT, SLR-MLR, DLT, LTO and SDLT. The most dominant tape format is LTO ultrium that facilitates ...
... the users to operate the LTO tapes with all branded LTO drives. Globally renowned tape manufacturers including HP Hewlett-Packard, Verbatim, Imation, Sun, IBM, TDK, Quantum, Maxell, Sony and Fuji are offering LTO cartridges.

Disk storage systems do not offer a perfect balance of robust data security and low operating cost. The same cannot be said for tape-based technologies. RAID-5 disk solution is economical but fails to provide reliable data security. RAID-10 disk storage technology offers robust security but is not economical. State-of-the-art technologies like “read after write” and “error correction code” enable the tape-based systems to ensure rock solid reliability. Tape library’s automated backup operations help to reduce the risk of handling damage, and enhance the productivity.

The ideal tape formats for medium & small enterprises are DDS4 tape, Travan tape, LTO1 ultrium, DAT-320 tape, DLT-4 tape, SLR-140 tape, DAT160 tape, LTO2 ultrium, DDS3 tape and LTO3 tape.

The data transfer speed of LTO drives is faster than disk systems. The latest LTO ultrium5 drive achieves 140MB per second native speed, which is ideal for surveillance video, media industry, commercial applications and CAD/CAM files. The backup tapes are also superior in terms of storage capacity. RDX disk cartridges can hold up to 1 TB data, whereas the LTO ultrium5 tape’s capacity is 1.5 TB. Data compression is another advantageous feature of tape-based format that extends the transfer speed and media capacity. Majority of the tape formats including DLT, Super DLT, Travan, LTO and VXA offer 2:1 compression. 2.6 to 1 compression is offered by AIT format.

Backup tapes are more robust, whereas shocks, vibrations and accidental drops can damage the hard disks. That is why the data administrators trust tape-based technology for offsite storage, and movement of data to remote sites. Tape-based solutions offer WORM functionality and cutting-edge encryption mechanism, thus enabling the users to satisfy the stiff mandates of industry and government regulations.

So if you are looking for long-term storage and robust data protection, confidently adopt the backup tape technology.

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 RDX cartridge and DAT 160 tape. 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