Tape capacity, technology continue to advance

Though some folks mistakenly view tape as an outdated technology — thanks in no small part to the fact that disk companies keep predicting its demise — there’s no denying its importance at the table of backup products. A recent Enterprise Strategy Group report indicates that 56% of organizations are still using tape. Perhaps not surprisingly, the larger the overall IT environment, the more likely that organization is to embrace tape as part of its data management strategy. There are two main reasons for this: The existence of more data heightens the importance of finding ways to store the data efficiently and, as an organization grows, it has a greater responsibility to store data for longer periods of time.

As a result, when looking at the Opex and Capex numbers, not to mention the ease of long-term data retention, tape moves to the forefront of the data management platform. When the LTO Consortium announced the release of LTO-7 as part of the Linear Tape File System in fall 2015, it reinforced the notion that tape technology is continuing to move forward. This three-part guide will take a closer look at what’s out there and what’s coming in terms of tape backup and tape libraries. It will also explain why archiving does not need to be complicated or expensive. In fact, when done correctly, it will actually save organizations money while meeting archival needs.

[Originally posted on TechTarget as a recurring columnist]

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