The leading tape backup format is LTO and, with the introduction of LTO-8 several years ago, you can store up to 30TB of data compressed on a single tape.īut there's more to come. Fujifilm says tape is three to four times cheaper to use than disk for long-term storage. Tape is still one of the least expensive options for long-term data archiving. The cost of tape storage keeps going down while its storage capacity keeps increasing.

That’s why smart organizations will never stop using tape storage. What if your office burns down or there’s a once-in-a-century flood? Or any other kind of natural disaster, for that matter? The safest way to protect your data is to put it on tape in a secure remote location. Backing up data on tape and sending it offsite is still a highly reliable disaster recovery method. There's a reason tape has survived for so long. This is a critical feature because tape is beyond the reach of both outside hackers and insider attacks-say, a disgruntled employee that tries to delete all your data-completely negating those threats.

That means you write on it once, and it can never be overwritten or deleted, either unintentionally or by cyber attackers. Tape offers security benefits, including a write-once-read-many format. It's ironic that, while we become more and more connected and digitized, we can still rely on the relic that is tape to give us added protection and secure our data against ransomware. Even if ransomware penetrates all your other defenses, it still won’t be able to hold your data hostage if it is safely backed up on tape. Tape can serve as your last line of defense if your backup tapes are kept at offsite locations or in storage vaults. Tape backup is offline-creating an air gap that physically isolates backups-so it can’t be easily infiltrated by malware or any other kind of cyberattack. Many of today’s data storage technologies, like cloud storage, can’t completely protect you against the growing threat of ransomware attacks. Tape delivers better protection against ransomware Here are five reasons why tape storage may be a wise choice to include in your backup plan when weighing your options. In reality, tape capacity shipments are increasing, with the Tape Storage Council recently reporting that a record 114,079 PB of linear tape-open (LTO) capacity shipped in 2019-a 400 percent increase since 2009. While the mainframe computer allegedly died more than 20 years ago, it's still a proven technology in many large enterprises. And it's no wonder that we're seeing a steady migration to flash storage and cloud storage.īut what if we told you that tape as a means of data storage is more relevant than ever? Even with all of its drawbacks? No wonder tape storage has a dubious reputation in many IT pros' minds.

Even worse, tapes can also be misplaced or even lost. That's just too much to handle for many small and medium businesses. Tapes can be labor-intensive, requiring a manual process to change them at the beginning or end of every day. They talk about the drawbacks of the technology-and those aren't insignificant. Plenty of IT pros have predicted the demise of tape storage as a backup medium.

Data backup tape