Talking dollars and sense for backup solutions

By Michael
July 6, 2012

Nowadays it seems there are online tools that do just about everything. There are apps that turn on our kitchen appliances, programs that trigger garage door openers and even remote monitoring of our home security systems.

But where is all the data hosted with these utilities stored? Well, online, of course. And what happens when that information comes under fire?

It’s gone. Irrevocably so in some cases. When you put it in that light, you might realize why the web isn’t the best thing to base an entire backup data system on, so putting other storage methods into play becomes much more relevant for spending considerations.

Cost and ownership

This ability to have a physical hold on business continuity is one of the most appealing qualities of backup tape software, despite what some consider as antiquity. An article published by eWeek pointed out that not only is the cost of repairing a data breach and replacing lost files high, so is covering for an availability outage.

A severe storm left much of Amazon’s client base in the dark after one of its data centers went offline, causing its cloud servers to fail, according to Midsize Insider. All the information was lost and it took hours for the service to be restored, during which time thousands of dollars might have been lost for companies like Nasdaq and Netflix, as well as Amazon itself.

Tape solutions aren’t considerably expensive and can handle terabytes of information at a time. The added safety of encryption and difficulty in accessing files without proper tech and training in the event of a loss or theft add to the appeal.

A matter of convenience

It’s true that the cloud offers instant access to files while traditional methods like backup tape updates can take a bit longer to complete, but leaps in tape technology are making the process faster all the time. This means added security and reliability for data on top of saving money for business. Deduplication and Flash-enabled drives can make a considerable difference in the duration of initial backups, updates and accessing stored files.

Since backup tape helps IT departments control every end of the process and provides a safe haven for data, this technology is making a comeback. Despite its age, this storage facility hasn’t yet gone out of fashion.

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