The Shrinking Backup System
A Backup Article Contributed by Melissa Larose
The Shrinking Backup System
Until recently, the most admired, trusted, and used backup system was tape. The tape backup system has been king for quite sometime. But it seems it is losing some of its market share. Maybe not in large chunks but it is being attacked on several fronts. Disk-based backup systems are being utilized in larger numbers every year. These disk-based backup systems use inexpensive disk drives as a suitable platform for enterprise data backup.
The Disk Backup System
In the beginning of disk backup systems, larger storage vendors scoffed. They saw tape as the only way. But minds are being changed. Many IT departments have adopted the disk backup system and have found that it reduces the time taken for a backup to complete and is just as recoverable as tape. The storage marketplace has jumped on the bandwagon and the proliferation of disk-based backup software and services has increased dramatically. This activity is not only found in newer start-up companies but also in well-established storage firms.
All the while tape still improves and is still the number one storage choice for most business backup systems. But the convenience and efficiency of a disk based backup system challenges its number one spot.
Disk Backup System Possibilities
There appear to be two basic ways to backup with a disk system. The first offers a cost savings because the tape based backup software does not necessarily have to be changed. A company using tape can keep using the backup software it now owns. The glitch comes in the data recovery process. Since the data is still written in a tape image, during a data recovery process the data must be written back into a disk image. This is an added step that more than likely can erase the cost savings of keeping your backup software.
The second way to backup to disk is a disk-to-disk backup system. There is no emulation of a tape backup here. This is a system that is strictly a disk backup to disk and can happen using a variety of techniques. The advantages of this backup system are more frequent backups (remember it is faster and more efficient) and there is no need to reverse the tape image into a disk image.
The disadvantages might weigh most businesses down though. The cost to change over to this type of system may make you hesitate but not for long. The system usually requires more configuration and management than before.
The Shrinking Backup System
All in all, the disk backup system can put a happier spin on the ever-growing size of data we store. It is a much more compact and efficient system. It offers a wider variety of storage choices for backup. Online and remote backup systems are usually disk-based systems. These types of storage offer further security for the data, more convenience for the IT department and businesses they service and more rapid recovery from a data disaster down the road. They shrink the backup system.
