Eliminate Tape Backup

A Backup Article Contributed by Melissa Larose

Eliminate Tape Backup

Is tape backup the way to backup your data? Critics and experts alike are saying that it is the least manageable of all backup media. According to the experts cost and constant need for managing, monitoring and tuning makes it the most time consuming backup storage process around. Although tape drive performance and capacity continue to improve, overall, tape cannot keep pace with the advances in disk storage nor can it keep up with the ever increasing size of data now being generated and stored.

Tape Backup Disadvantages

The advancement of computer technology has changed many ways of planning and making decisions. It use to be that cost was the deciding factor in many technological purchasing decisions. Whatever the lowest cost is what we go with, as long as it gets the job done is a way of doing business that just no longer works. In this philosophy the tape backup system was almost always the choice.

Actually a tape backup system has a host of hidden costs and irritations that make it less appealing than other more advanced and non-traditional alternatives. Tape is an item that needs to be manually tracked and physically moved. Tape drives have a high failure rate and the tapes themselves need maintenance and attention.

Tape Backup Can't Keep Up

Data grows, is growing, and will continue to grow. Technological advances have encouraged us to make more and more data. Tape cannot keep up with the pace of data growth. Tape hardware and the input and output of tape's execution cannot keep up. The increasing demand for 24/7 data availability requires a high speed, proficient, and efficient solution and tape becomes a burden. Join this with a lack of untrained IT employees available to deal with a tape backup system and you can see why tape can't keep up.

The need for rapid recovery of files, databases, and whole networks is critical to business continuity and a business's daily operations. The process a tape system requires to operate error free is too cumbersome for the needs of a rapidly moving environment.

The simple factor of a tape library requiring tape media to fill it can make costs soar high above what one would suspect. Coupled with the fact that disk backup is dropping rapidly in price, the fact that tape costs have grown due to the sheer size of the data being stored, you can see that tape is tipping the scales in the wrong direction when it comes to staying within budget.

Tape Backup Considerations

If tape is your backup system of choice and you haven't reviewed your decision recently, do so now. Not only re-evaluate your backup choice but also review your data growth over the last ten years. You may find that the growth of your data, the cost of the tape system, and the cost of keeping trained employees around to deal with the system are not keeping up with the direction you want your company to go.