Why TAPE BACKUP is still ALIVE

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Here are the reasons why tape backup still survives amidst sophisticated technologies like cloud, flash drives, and HDDS.)

Tape backup, as the name suggests, is used to copy data from a storage device to magnetic tape as a backup. This practice is either manual or automated through software. From backing up a small HDD on a PC to storing a large amount of data for disaster recovery or archiving, they are a popular option for data backup.

Why TAPE BACKUP is still ALIVEThe first tape drive was introduced by Remington Rand which was of 224 KB. The latest one has been launched by IBM in 2018 and can store up to 20 TB of data.

Amidst the dominance of pen drives, portable HDDs, virtual storage like the cloud, tape seems to be outdated technology. But tape is here despite its reduced use. According to the Data Protection Landscape Survey by ESG in 2018, tape usage has been steady among American businesses, if not on the rise. Even Google has used tape to restore the email boxes of 40,000 users in 2011.

Here are the reasons that have saved tape from being obsolete.

It Can Store Data for Longer:

One of the striking benefits of tape is that it stores the data for longer periods than other storage devices.

Being Compatible to ISV Applications:

It is compatible with major ISV applications like NetBackup, ARCserve, and NetBackup.

Fast Performance: 

The data transfer rate on tape is significantly faster than most storage mediums like disk and flash drive storage. It has the ability to move data at speeds of over 1TB, hr per tape drive.

Being Portable:

It is easier to move tapes than disk drives. For example, you can transport tapes in a vehicle in a disaster recovery scenario which is easier than to download multiple petabytes (PB) from the cloud.