4 Cases for Tape Backup Over Disk in Disaster Recovery
Posted by Eric Bornfriend on Tue, Sep 20, 2011 @ 04:33 PM
When running a medical facility, law firm, software company or other business that relies on data files, it is extremely important to have a solid disaster recovery backup in place. Although there are many suitable options available for backup, tape recovery may not be the first one mentioned, but it continues to remain viable for long term data storage and disaster recovery. If you are looking at multiple backup alternatives, you need to determine how a tape storage strategy will work into your overall plan.
Copying and Saving
One of the main perks of using a tape backup, tape libraries, tape drives and other tape based storage options like the StorageTek SL500 or the ADIC Scalar i500 over disk is the amount of time consumed copying and saving the data. When using hard disk storage options, you must completely copy the entire album to the hard drive. Every time you back up the information you must repeat the same process. With a tape drive you can build on the storage backup you already have created, saving a good deal of time.
On the other hand, when using a tape backup system for disaster recovery, the copying and saving process is not nearly as time consuming. You simply need to insert a new tape drive into the tape storage tower, and then copy the files from the computer onto the tape drive. Once data is stored on the tape drive you no longer need to transfer the file information. With a disk data recovery process you need to constantly copy data from one hard drive to another hard drive. This begins to add up the cost of your storage option.
Built-in Error Checking
Transferring data files generally runs smoothly, although on occasion files do become corrupted. Of course, when this happens you generally aren’t aware of the damaged information, until it is far too late. This is where a built-in error checking system comes in handy. When using a tape backup, tape libraries, tape drives and other tape storage options you always have this feature built in. If a file transfer incurs an error, you are notified of the fact, allowing you to transfer the data a second time. Of course, if the file is already corrupt before transferring the information there isn’t anything you can do about it.
Disk drives do not have the built-in error checking option, so you need to physically open every file after the transfer just to make sure everything has copied correctly. If you don’t, and a file is corrupt, it is too little to late.
Power Usage
Tape backup, tape libraries, tape drives and tape storage devices are far more power efficient than hard disk drives. This is going to cut down on your company’s (or home office) electric bill. Tape drives like the HP LTO4 or the StorageTek T10000 only power up when activated and in use. However, disk drives are always on, regardless of usage. Over time, this is greatly going to increase the price of running the disaster recovery backup.
Total Cost
Ultimately, when selecting a storage system to be prepared for disaster recovery, you need to look at two main statistics. How well the option stores data and the overall cost. Tape backup, tape libraries, tape drives and other tape storage features are far less expensive than disk drives. The same amount of storage on a tape drive costs less to purchase than a disk drive. This is just one aspect of saving funds for your disaster recovery system. This is in addition to the to the power usage savings as stated above in the previous section. This gives you two folds savings over using the disk drive storage option for your home office and business disaster recovery.