On Tape

You may recall from my last column that my first, second and third most important tasks after becoming the executive director of PRISM was to learn, learn and learn. With a lot of help from PRISM leadership, I’m doing the best I can.

Among the things I’ve been most interested to learn about is data protection. In an environment in which everyone is talking about the cloud, just how relevant is tape? Is tape on the way out?

According to a survey by Overland Storage, for example, tape storage remains a critical component of the data center. Half of the respondents say their businesses could not manage without tape storage, and 56 percent of respondents say they keep data on disk for a month or less before moving it to tape. These same survey results indicate that almost 75 percent of respondents are using tape storage for on-site backups and 63 percent are using tape storage for off-site backups and disaster recovery. Eighty percent of respondents say they do not believe archiving to the cloud will replace tape storage.

Among the more interesting facts I found came from Fred Moore of Horison Information Strategies:

• The majority of data being generated today is write-once-read-seldom-if-ever (WORSE). Thus, rapid retrieval is not a huge priority. This data is well-suited for lower-cost storage technologies such as tape.
• Tape technology is evolving faster than hard disk drive (HDD) technology.
• Bit error rates (BERs)—one of the most important device reliability factors—are now superior for tape versus HDD.
• Storage per gigabyte and operating costs for tape are much lower than HDD storage costs.
• Tape remains important for backup but its role in big data, cloud, high-performance computing and IT operations is expanding dramatically.

The more I read, the more it became clear that the cloud does not threaten or preclude tape, just as it does not preclude disk. There is no battle between tape and disk; indeed, the issue is really about how to leverage both in an overall data protection program.

Fortunately, there is an opportunity to learn about these issues. PRISM’s 2012 Data Protection Workshop, Sept. 6-7 in Chicago, features a lineup of data protection experts. Visit www.prismintl.org/events/upcoming for information.

Dave Bergeson is the incoming executive director PRISM International, Chicago, and can be reached at dbergeson@prismintl.org or at 847-375-4866.