Anyone using TAPE for backups?

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Anyone using TAPE for backups?

tangor

4:22 am on Jul 7, 2017 (gmt 0)

Looking for on-going solutions for the rather unglamorous job of backing up data. When HD capacities went through the roof and costs came down, hot swapable made a lot of sense and targeted "quick" backup of mission critical to SSD even more so... but the bit counts keep rising and clustered machines reaching MULTI-TERABYTES is making the new tape systems look more attractive.

Anyone using tape these days?

keyplyr

5:36 am on Jul 7, 2017 (gmt 0)

I don't trust any kind of tape. It degrades over time. In my studio I got rid of all tape and the devices it ran on. So I'm jaded and haven't checked out any *new* tape systems.

SSD is more stable now. I use it all over. Getting much cheaper too.

I remember in the late 1960s we used 2" chromium tape for memory. In fact I think tape was the only medium available at the time. Somehow going *back* to tape just seems... wrong.

lammert

5:44 am on Jul 7, 2017 (gmt 0)

Not using tapes anymore for about ten years. The reason is that I am restore-focused rather than backup-focused. Having a backup solution which allows quick restore of individual files is the most important reason for this. It makes no sense to have to search through tape sets for hours to find that one file which was lost or corrupted. Therefore I only use random access storage solutions like disks and cloud storage which allow me to restore individual files in seconds.

IanCP

6:11 am on Jul 7, 2017 (gmt 0)

There was some high capacity back up I looked at some time ago, I think it was tape but the price was so horrific I looked no further. I think it was for stuff like big corporate networks.

tangor

8:06 am on Jul 7, 2017 (gmt 0)

I'm not selling product and will mention no names, but suggest a rethink. The current tape systems I'm looking at right now are 12-15tb and can do target restores in minutes, not hours. The landscape has changed and the dollars are more reasonable (if you have need of those kind of capacities).

I recently crossed the 7tb threshold (total) for five systems in house, hence the interest. Still doing hot swap (open bay) on each system, but the pile of spinning rust is getting to be a hassle. As well as the documentation of what is on each disk.

NOTE: I do more than the web so these numbers are not related to many (or hardly any) websites. Appreciate the comments, know the reluctance (been there, done that way back when). But have been a fan of tape since the 1960s ... and all those tapes (not computer, of course) are still playing just fine.

Storage and the earth's magnetic field are the qualifiers on how long tape is viable. I can live with a half life of 200 years. Tape does have one advantage over spinning rust: it can't self-destruct that easy.