In the era of cloud storage and high capacity hard drives, many wonder if tape backups are still commonly used. While tape backups may seem outdated, they continue to play an important role for some organizations due to their unique benefits.
What are tape backups?
Tape backups involve copying data onto magnetic tape cartridges or reels for storage and recovery purposes. They have been used for decades to protect important data from loss due to hardware failure, accidental deletion, malware, and disasters. While other backup media like optical discs and external hard drives are more common today, tape remains a key part of backup strategies for some organizations.
Who still uses tape backups?
While small businesses and consumers rarely rely on tape anymore, tape backups are still commonly used by:
- Large enterprises
- Government agencies
- Scientific research facilities
- Medical imaging centers
- Financial institutions
- Other organizations with tremendous data storage needs
These types of organizations generate or store very large volumes of critical data that would be impractical to back up using discs or hard drives alone. The high capacity of modern tape cartridges makes them ideal for cost-effectively backing up enormous datasets.
Why do organizations still rely on tape backups?
There are several key advantages that tape backups still offer compared to other backup media:
High capacity
A single tape cartridge can store vast amounts of data, from hundreds of gigabytes up to multiple terabytes per cartridge. This allows enormous amounts of data to be backed up using fewer tapes.
Low cost
The cost per gigabyte of storage is very low with tape backups. Large volumes of data can be backed up very economically compared todisks or cloud storage.
Long shelf life
Tape cartridges can retain data reliably for 5-30 years if stored properly. This meets regulatory requirements for long term archiving in some industries.
Fast data transfer
Tape drives can read/write data very quickly in sequential operations. This makes performing large volume backups more feasible than over networks.
Portability
Cartridges are easy to remove, transport and store offsite for disaster recovery purposes. This provides protection against site disasters like fires, floods, etc.
Security
Tapes stored offline are disconnected from networks and thus isolated from cyber attacks. This enhances security for sensitive data that requires an air gap.
What types of tape formats and drives are used?
There are a variety of tape backup solutions available for different storage needs:
Linear Tape-Open (LTO)
LTO is the most popular open tape format used today. Current LTO generations can store up to 30TB uncompressed on a single cartridge.
Oracle T10000
Oracle’s proprietary format offers high capacity drives (up to 96TB compressed per cartridge).
IBM 3592
IBM’s enterprise tape solution provides 60TB native capacity per cartridge.
Super DLT
An older format that could store up to 1.6TB per cartridge.
AIT/SAIT
Sony’s proprietary tape tech, available in capacities up to 5.4TB uncompressed.
QIC
An older 1/4″ tape format used for smaller backup needs.
Various types of SCSI, SAS and Fibre Channel interfaces are used with enterprise tape drives and autoloaders.
What are some examples of how tape is used?
Here are some examples of how organizations utilize tape backup:
- Financial companies archive transaction logs and statements.
- Medical facilities store patient imaging scans (MRIs, x-rays, etc).
- Scientific research sites backup experimental data.
- Cloud providers archive less accessed “cold” data.
- Government agencies store classified records and intel.
- Enterprises backup huge databases.
Tape allows these organizations to save massive volumes of critical data for long periods. It provides an offline way to preserve huge datasets affordably.
What are the limitations of tape backups?
Tape has several disadvantages that make other backup methods preferable for some situations:
- Accessing random files quickly is difficult; tape works best for sequential operations.
- Tape has slower data transfer speeds than hard drives and networks.
- Physical media has higher failure rates than other storage.
- Drives may need to be replaced 5-10 years after purchase.
- Restoring large backups can be time consuming.
For these reasons, tape is not ideal for everyday backup needs of typical businesses. The capacity, long-term retention and offline security make it advantageous for large-scale, archival data storage.
What is the future outlook for tape storage?
While the heyday of tape has largely passed, it continues to fill an important archival data storage role and most experts expect this to continue for the foreseeable future. According to a report from MarketsandMarkets, the tape storage market is projected to grow from $4.1 billion in 2018 to over $5.7 billion by 2023. Some of the trends influencing tape storage include:
- New LTO standards continue to increase capacity (LTO-9 will store 45TB native).
- Tape capacity and transfer rates continue to improve.
- Growing data volumes require greater offline storage capacity.
- Compliance requirements for long term records retention persist.
- Concerns over cyber attacks generate demand for offline “air gap” storage.
While tape has largely disappeared from consumer use cases, it retains an important role for the largest commercial data sets that require affordable massive capacity and/or offline security. Tape backup clearly still has an ongoing place in modern data centers despite competition from disk and cloud storage alternatives.
Conclusion
Tape backup is still regularly used for archival data storage at large organizations with massive data retention needs. The very high capacities, low costs, long shelf life, and offline security make tape well-suited for backing up huge volumes of critical data, especially when records must be preserved for compliance or regulatory purposes. While various disk and cloud alternatives now handle most everyday backup needs efficiently, tape remains an economical choice for managing tremendous amounts of business records, scientific data, medical scans and other vital information that must be kept offline and preserved for extended periods. Despite its shortcomings, tape backup still fills an important role that alternative technologies cannot always satisfy cost-effectively.