The Ur-Guru pointed me to a January 23rd post on Engadget announcing IBM’s development of a 35-terabyte magnetic tape. That’s impressively huge, all right, but the first thing that crossed my mind was: tape is a linear medium. How long is it going to take to find and restore any particular file stored on a tape that large? Okay, so they’re not really longer, just denser, but seriously—how does … [Read more...]
In Praise of Tape Backup: FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 08-01-08
This is a guest column by Jeff Mordkowitz, The Profit Coach. Jeff is the first person I’ve talked to who not only uses tape backup in a SOHO setting, but likes it. Most of what we hear about tape these days is unflattering, so I thought it was important to include the other side of the story. None of the manufacturers listed below is paying me a commission for including them, and I don’t believe … [Read more...]
Rotating Backup Media and Other Tricks: FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 03-30-07
Alas, I am in a tearing hurry this morning. I hate being in a hurry. I’m good with deadlines, but I’m not at all good at hurrying. Things tend to take longer when I hurry.Despite the fact that I don’t have time to write a regular column, I do have several handy bits of backup-related news to share, so I’m going to direct you to some other sources of useful information.The last time I talked about … [Read more...]
Replacing Tapes with DVDs
In his August 15 post Rethinking backup, ZDNet's Paul Murphy suggests replacing standard tape drives with a combination of RAID array and DVD superdrive. "The cash savings are obvious but other things may be more important. For example, high quality DVDs outlast tapes, cost less, and require less storage space." It's true, people talk a lot about the 30 year shelf life of tape, and DVDs, like … [Read more...]
Tape Wars: "I'm not dead yet!"
I keep seeing more items about tape in magazines and online, so I thought I should post a few of them.Computer Technology Review's most recent print issue (or the most recent one to reach me, anyway) has a story headlined "Tape is Here to Stay." Why? According to the author, Rich Harada, president of the Tape Technology Council (and therefore perhaps just a little biased, as are the … [Read more...]
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