Tape Drive Backup Or Remote Backup - Which One To Opt For

By Author: James Walsh
Total Articles: 68
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Traditionally, tape drives are the popular media for data backup and even today, they remain popular. On the other hand, remote backup through the internet is a new entrant in this particular field and from the time of its introduction, it has dominated the data backup market.

Both of these types of data backup have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Hence, choosing among them can be difficult. To assist you in the process, let us compare their features, advantages and drawbacks. This could help you in choosing the right back up method that would best suit your requirements.

Comparison between Tape Drive Backup and Remote Backup

Tape drive backup offers you high transfer rates (about 80 MB per second) that may not always be achieved with a remote backup. The speed of online transfer of data depends on various factors such as the available bandwidth, network traffic etc.

On the other hand, you do not need to actively oversee the process of online data transfer as it takes place automatically. This saves a lot of time that is consumed in a tape backup. Also, as the online data transfer ...
... is automatic, it does not hinder the tasks that you may be performing, as it takes place in the background. Such a backup also ensures that even the smallest modification in the files is registered onto the remote server.

The storage space offered by both these backup methods is quite large. In case of tape drives, if a tape is fully written you could go for the next tape. Whereas, in case of remote backup, the storage space available on a company's remote server is almost unlimited. Thus, both these types work equally well as far as backup of data on a large scale is concerned.

But, in case you require to backup data on a small scale, tape backup proves to be more convenient as the tapes are available in various sizes ranging from few megabytes to several gigabytes.

Also, as far as the cost is concerned, remote backup is no match for tape backup. Remote backup is among the most expensive backup means available whereas tape drive backup is the cheapest. Thus, if your budget for data backup is meagre, tapes are just the solution for you. The cost of tape backup is quite predictable as well. Whereas the cost of remote backup may vary depending on the market trends, ownership of the backup company etc.

Tapes also enable you to organise the data more efficiently as you would be directly involved with the back up process. On the other hand, in case of remote backup, the files might be stored in a haphazard manner. Thus, some of your old records may get mixed up with the new ones. Archiving of tapes makes such a situation impossible.

Another advantage of remote data backup is that the backed up data is present at a different location all together. This means that the backups will not be lost in case a natural disaster strikes. Placing the backup in the form of tapes at a different location is possible but it adds to the cost of transporting the same.

The restoration of data backed up on tapes may prove to be quicker and more immediate than the backup on a remote server. The reason for the same being that the available bandwidth may not be sufficient for transfer of large amounts of data.

The next important aspect to consider is that of reliability. It is certainly true that the reliability of tape drives has improved over the years but still, it does not match the reliability offered by remote backup where your data is guaranteed to remain safe almost endlessly. But, as the backed up data would probably be of no use after a decade or so, tape drives also prove to be good enough for the job.

Thus, it can be seen that both the types offer different advantages and hence are suitable for different purposes. Generally speaking, remote backup should be preferred by large companies and tape drive backup by the small ones. So choose according to your business needs and be benefited.

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk