| It has been observed that many companies prefer it | | | | small businesses which do need to backup the data |
| even today (about 80% of the digital data even | | | | but cannot afford to invest a large sum of money |
| today is stored on tapes.) even when many new | | | | for the same purpose. |
| devices such as flash drives, portable hard drives or | | | | - Another possible advantage of tape drives is the |
| even CDs and DVDs have come up as data backup | | | | tape library system which helps you keep your data |
| media. Let us have a look at the reasons for the | | | | organised and this particular process is automated as |
| same by considering the advantages that tape drives | | | | well. The software that is used for the same has |
| offer. | | | | also shown a lot of development over the years. |
| Advantages of Tape Drives | | | | - The reliability of storage of data on tape drives has |
| - In tape drives, it is not possible to access any data | | | | been in question many times. But nowadays even |
| randomly but it can be accessed only sequentially. But | | | | that is not a thing to worry about since the tapes |
| even with this apparent disadvantage, high data | | | | keep your data quite safe for a long period of time |
| transfer speeds (up to 80 MB per second) can be | | | | though not as long a time as offered by hard disks. |
| achieved on them. The randomness in access of data | | | | But this is amply compensated by the cost |
| is also not required generally as most of the data | | | | difference between the two. |
| backup is carried out just to comply with the laws of | | | | - Corruption of data that has been backed up is a |
| disaster management and these data are rarely | | | | problem that has been faced by many companies so |
| accessed in reality except when a disaster strikes. | | | | far and the only solution for the same is making |
| - Another significant advantage of tape drives is the | | | | multiple copies of the same data. Practicing the same |
| amount of storage space that they offer. It ranges | | | | by using disks proves to be very expensive and |
| from a few Megabytes to about 800 GB that too | | | | hence a backup copy on a tape is generally |
| without compression. With such a large amount of | | | | preferred. |
| space available, a single tape drive could prove to be | | | | - Where security is the concern, tape drives also |
| sufficient for all the data that you may need to | | | | have not been left behind and the newer versions |
| backup. | | | | offer options such as WORM (Write Once Read |
| - To add to the above mentioned capacity, tape | | | | Many) which allow data to be written on the disks |
| drives offer you a high compression ratio, which | | | | only once and it can be accessed many times. Other |
| means that the data that is to be stored on the | | | | features such as encryption are also available. They |
| drive can be compressed to even half its original size. | | | | also limit access to the data to a particular |
| - Also, with the technological advancements in the | | | | geographical location so that the data cannot be |
| form of new storage media, the tape drives also | | | | stolen over the internet. |
| have not been left behind. They have shown a vast | | | | The Last Word |
| amount of improvement over the years since 1951 | | | | The tape drives are also expected to hold a large |
| when the tape drive was first introduced. | | | | share in the market in the years to come as tapes |
| - Cost is always an area of prime importance when | | | | which can store up to 2 TB (Terabytes) of data are |
| data backup is concerned. Tape drives are quite cost | | | | expected to be developed within 5 years from now. |
| efficient as well and are cheaper than most other | | | | Given all these advantages, it is no wonder that tape |
| forms of data storage when the ratio of cost per | | | | drives remain the preferred backup media even |
| amount of data that is stored is taken into account. | | | | today! |
| This makes the tape drives affordable especially for | | | | |