Tape backups have been around for decades and continue to play an important role in data protection strategies today. While disk and cloud backups are more popular for daily backups, tape still offers unique advantages that keep it relevant for certain use cases.
What are tape backups?
Tape backups involve copying data onto removable magnetic tape cartridges for offline storage. Tape drives and automation systems like tape libraries are used to write data to tapes and retrieve data when needed. Some key advantages of tape backups include:
- Low cost per GB compared to disk
- Long shelf life (30 years+)
- Portability for offsite storage
- High capacity tapes available (up to 30TB raw)
- Built-in encryption options
Tape is well-suited for infrequent backups of large datasets, such as weekly or monthly full backups. The capacity and portability make tapes convenient for transporting copies offsite for disaster recovery. Tape is also used for archiving data that doesn’t need frequent access but needs to be retained for regulatory compliance.
What are the use cases for tape backups today?
Here are some of the most common use cases where organizations are still relying on tape backups:
Long-term data retention
Regulations often require data to be retained for years. Tape provides an air-gapped, offline format for affordable long-term retention. Media stored properly can last for decades.
Offsite vaulting
To protect against site disasters like fires or floods, companies send copies of backups offsite for recovery. Tape makes this process efficient since cartridges are compact and can be easily transported and stored in a vault or with a cloud provider.
Cold data storage
Older “cold” data that needs to be kept but is rarely accessed can be moved to tape. This data may come from archiving projects or just old system backups. Freeing this data from disks reduces storage costs.
Disaster recovery
In a crisis scenario where primary data center resources are lost, tape backups provide an offline, portable recovery source. Tapes can be physically transported wherever they need to be restored.
High-capacity backups
Backing up modern high-capacity storage can result in huge backup sets. Tape scales more easily to this large data compared to other media.
Cloud seeding
Sending initial full backups to the cloud can take weeks or months over a network. Writing to tape locally first provides a faster way to “seed” cloud backups.
Avoiding network bottlenecks
Full backups can saturate available network bandwidth. Backing up directly to tape bypasses the network for a bottleneck-free backup.
Air-gapped cybersecurity
Tape provides an isolated, air-gapped copy of data that is disconnected from networks and safe from cyberattacks.
Legacy compatibility
Some legacy systems only support writing backups to physical tape media. Keeping a tape infrastructure helps preserve compatibility with older platforms.
What are the limitations of tape backups?
Tape also comes with some downsides that make it less than ideal for some scenarios:
- Restores can be slow – tape is sequential media
- Difficult to validate contents without a full restore
- Mechanical parts and media have a finite lifetime
- Manual intervention required for tape handling
- Upfront investment needed for drives and libraries
For these reasons, tape is not well suited to fast recovery of small amounts of data. The overhead of mechanical tape handling also makes it impractical for frequent backups. Solutions like disk and cloud work better for daily incremental backups.
What are the typical components of a tape backup system?
A complete tape backup environment requires a few key components:
- Tape drives – Devices that can read/write data to tape cartridges. LTO is a popular tape drive format.
- Tape media – The removable cartridges that go into the drives. Different formats have different capacities.
- Backup software – Software to coordinate backups and restores. May integrate with other apps like databases.
- Tape libraries – Robotic libraries house multiple drives and slot cartridges for automation.
A small setup may just use an external drive with manual loading. Larger environments use tape libraries with dozens of slots and multiple built-in drives for automation.
What are the most popular tape formats today?
LTO (Linear Tape Open) is the most widely adopted tape format today. Some current and past LTO generations include:
| LTO-9 | Released 2022 | 18 TB native capacity |
| LTO-8 | Released 2019 | 12 TB native capacity |
| LTO-7 | Released 2015 | 6 TB native capacity |
| LTO-6 | Released 2012 | 2.5 TB native capacity |
| LTO-5 | Released 2010 | 1.5 TB native capacity |
Other tape formats used today include IBM 3592 and Oracle T10000, but LTO has the biggest market share. LTO roadmap plans indicate capacities doubling with each generation, which is enabled by new formats like barium ferrite (BaFe) tape. Higher capacities allow storing more data per tape, reducing the number of tapes needed.
How has tape technology evolved in recent years?
Tape technology continues to advance in a few key areas:
- Increased capacities – New media formulations allow packing more data per tape.
- Faster speeds – Newer drives can match HDD transfer rates of over 300 MB/s.
- Built-in encryption – On-the-fly encryption using standards like AES-256.
- LTFS format – Makes tape contents visible as normal files and folders.
- Barcodes – Support for cartridge ID tracking and automation.
These developments help tape keep pace with evolving demands for speed, capacity, and security. But the fundamental benefits of high density, portability, longevity, and low cost remain tape’s biggest advantages.
What types of companies still rely on tape backups?
Tape retains an important role in data protection for organizations with:
- Lots of data requiring long-term retention, like financial records or medical images.
- Large on-premise infrastructure with hundreds of TBs or more of data.
- Regulatory compliance needs, like SOX or HIPAA.
- A widely distributed footprint, making transporting tapes efficient.
- Cost sensitivities that limit adoption of disk and cloud storage.
- Mainframe and legacy platforms designed for tape.
- A history of tape usage creating inertia to keep leveraging sunk costs.
Media & entertainment firms working with huge video files also continue to be heavy tape users. While tape usage has declined in the consumer space, the enterprise tape market seems stable according to analysts.
How can tape be used with disk and cloud data protection?
Tape, disk, and cloud each have pros and cons. The most robust data protection typically involves using all three in a tiered, complementary fashion.
Short-term backups to disk provide quick restore of recent data. Cloud similarly offers readily accessible backups. Tape serves as the final tier providing cost-efficient long-term retention.
A sample hybrid backup scheme might look like:
- Daily incremental backups to disk for one month.
- Weekly full backups to cloud for one year.
- Monthly full backups to tape for 7-10 years.
Tape can also help optimize the cloud seeding process, disaster recovery, and dealing with bandwidth bottlenecks. The three mediums together form a complete data protection strategy.
What are some best practices for getting the most from tape backups?
Some tips for maximizing the value from a tape backup infrastructure include:
- Use multiple copies – Write at least two tape copies to guard against media problems.
- Vault offsite – Send one copy offsite for disaster recovery.
- Test restores – Periodically validate backups by restoring from tape.
- Monitor health – Check tape drive and media health metrics.
- Consolidate old data – Move stale data to fewer tapes to reduce management.
- Validate archives – Sample archived data integrity.
- Standardize formats – Use fewer tape formats to simplify operations.
Properly monitoring and caring for tapes allows extracting maximum lifespan from the media. Following best practices helps ensure backups are usable when needed.
What is the future outlook for tape backups?
Tape’s future prospects seem fairly stable. Tape shipments saw steady growth pre-2020 before flattening during the pandemic. One report predicts tape capacity shipments will grow at a modest 2% CAGR through 2025.
However, tapes are likely to continue playing a key role in large enterprise environments:
- Data growth is exploding – by 2025 global data is projected to grow 61% to 181 zettabytes. All this new data needs protection.
- Long-term retention needs are expanding due to trends like big data analytics, AI, medical imaging, video surveillance, scientific research, and DNA storage.
- Backup targets need to scale up – disk and cloud costs still limit affordability at high capacities.
- New technologies extend tape viability – LTO roadmap cites capacity increases, LTFS, AES-256 encryption, and redemption in reliability.
Tape has successfully adapted to stick around for decades. Given its enduring economic advantages for large cold datasets, tape likely still has an important role to play looking out over the next 10-20 years.
Conclusion
In summary, while disk and cloud solutions are driving growth in the data protection market, tried and true tape technology continues to deliver unique value. Thanks to tape’s capacity scaling, portability, security, and low cost, tape backup and archiving remains relevant for many organizations with tremendous amounts of data to protect and retain.
