Why Tape Storage Could be Essential for your Business.
Don’t count tape out. There could still be a place for it in your storage model.
Recent advances in big-data analytics and artificial intelligence have created strong incentives for enterprises to collect information about every measurable aspect of their business. Although great in theory, there’s been an emerging roadblock: the amount of data being recorded is increasing at 30-40% each year while the capacity of modern hard drives (used to store most of this) is increasing at less than half that rate.
The good news is that much of this information doesn’t need to be accessed instantly. And for such data, tape is the perfect solution. A tape drive is one of the oldest data storage systems, allowing for reading and writing of data onto a magnetic tape. It’s inexpensive, reliable, and secure. So then why does tape carry such a negative and antiquated connotation? Perhaps it’s time we lay those rumours to rest. To learn more about the benefits of tape for your storage environment and how a third party support provider can help extend the life of your workhorse tape system, continue reading.
Tape is only getting started.
Tape has been around for a long while, yes. But the technology hasn’t been frozen in time. Just like the hard disk or the transistor, tape has advanced enormously over the decades. The industry is now looking at holding hundreds of terabytes of data on a kilometre of tape. And unlike hard drives, which are reaching the end of their capacity scaling, tape isn’t even approaching physical scaling limits. Tape also takes up less room and costs about one-sixth as much as equivalent SSDs. Furthermore, tape error rates are four to five orders of magnitude lower than those of hard drives.
Today, a modern tape cartridge can hold 15 TB and a single robotic tape library can contain up to 278 PB of data. So where some see an outmoded system, others are finding opportunity. And like the latter, we believe tape will undoubtedly continue to play a role in enterprise storage for decades to come.
Benefits of tape storage:
Sure, data-access rates of tape can’t meet the demands of mission-critical applications. But for archiving, backup, and recovery scenarios (applications where offline storage is an advantage), tape is tough to beat. Consider that once an organization has invested in the hardware itself, tape is inexpensive and offers low-cost, energy-efficient, long-term storage. Moreover, in light of recent ransomware onslaughts, many are finding added value in tapes’ natural “air gap” in protecting against cyberattack.
Cost.
Worried about the cost of cloud storage? Tape is a great alternative to many Backup-as-a-Service offerings! Although tape systems remain relatively expensive to buy, their low lifetime cost makes up for the initial investment over the long-term. And the cost of tape is less in terms of electricity and administration. While investing in tape doesn’t make much sense below 50TB, once you get into the petabytes, the cost benefits of tape backup and archiving are significant.
Energy Consumption.
Go green with tape storage! Unlike disk-based storage, tape isn’t constantly sucking power through an electric cord. Tape drives only operate when data is being read or written to them. Once all the data has been recorded, a tape cartridge simply sits quietly on a shelf or in a slot in a robotic library and doesn’t consume any power at all.
Disaster Recovery.
Tapes’ natural air gap is one reason it continues to be favourable among storage and disaster recovery experts. A completely separate data store is resilient against problems caused by code errors or other problems with production applications – especially ransomware attacks.
Capacity.
As of September 2020, the boundaries of tape technology have been further advanced with the news that by leveraging LTO-9 tape technology, the world’s largest tape library now stores an industry-first exabyte (one million terabytes) of uncompressed data. This makes for high-capacity storage that comes in a relatively small physical package.
Longevity.
Tape-based storage offers superior durability over traditional disk-based storage and most any modern storage medium. When stored properly, tape media can last up to 30 years.
Portability.
With the data separated from the read/write mechanism, tape creates a natural “air gap”. Thus, tape is uniquely suitable for offsite storage, as the media itself is lightweight and more robust in transit than hard drives. Conversely, to secure data from cloud or disk storage spaces, you would have to transfer large amounts of data over the network to a new backup site.
Security.
Tape is very secure, with built-in, on-the-fly encryption and additional security provided by the nature of the medium itself. This air gap is particularly attractive in light of the growing rate of data theft through cyberattacks and ransomware.
Get Post-Warranty Support for your Tape Solution.
Do you have a tape backup system that–despite being out-of-warranty with the manufacturer–just runs? It’s been in use for years and never causes any problems? It’s a relatively “hands-off” solution, but you’d still like some sort of coverage as it is an older system? Good news–you are a perfect candidate for third party support! Third party support for tape backup is an extremely affordable way to prolong the life of your tape system 5-10 years beyond EOSL. And whether you rely on Dell, IBM, HP, Quantum, Fujitsu, Overland, or Sun/Oracle for your tape solution, Support 247’s versatile engineers have you covered.
When it comes to tape support, Support 247 boasts many advantages:
- Flexible service levels
- 4hr on-site response
- EOL and EOSL support
- 40-80% savings in comparison with major tape manufacturers
- 10% more savings on average than competitors
- hundreds of local on-site techs
- 20+ forward-stocking locations around the UK
- All major technologies supported (plus some more obscure ones)
- Co-term support; consolidate all devices onto one contract regardless of differing manufacturers or warranty periods
- Unmatched service – our highly experienced service representatives are standing by to answer your questions right now!
Interested in installing a tape backup system or adding support to your existing system? To find out how your tape storage solution can benefit from the many perks of third party support, speak to one of our experienced, professional team and contact us here.