Tape Backup: Pros and Cons (2024)

FAQs

What are the cons of tape backup? ›

On the flip side, there is a limited amount of space on a tape drive. Once the drive is full, you need to buy additional tapes. Furthermore, locating information on the tape drive can take some time. It doesn't work as fast as a solid state drive, and while it is not slow by any means, it isn't instantaneous.

Tape backup is a viable, affordable, and reliable way to back up data, even in 2024! Using tape backup can reduce the high costs of storing data for compliance and provide a safe and secure buffer to protect data against cybercrime and natural disasters.

As mentioned above, while tapes do have a much longer lifespan than HDDs and SSDs, they're not invulnerable to physical and environmental damage. Tapes must be kept in the correct environment, away from high sources of heat, humidity and strong magnetic fields.

Yes, magnetic tape backups are still used at many organizations—usually not for primary storage, but as archival storage and as part of a backup strategy.

Most manufacturers estimate that LTO tapes will provide dependable data storage for 15-30 years. However, LTO archives require precise storage conditions. Slight deviations in temperature or humidity can affect storage life.

Tape Drives are read/written to at 140MB/s, making them much faster than BluRays. The problem is that tape drives cost roughly $2000 each. So tapes only become economical when you're storing 25+ TB of data. The other problem is that to prevent "shoe shining", you need a fast storage system to feed the tape drive.

Some drawbacks of tape technology include the following: Sequential storage. Tape drives use a sequential access approach to reading and writing data. That means they must start at the beginning of the tape and roll through it to access specific data or write new data.

Obsolescence isn't the only time-critical threat to tape backup, either: tape also degrades over time. If not stored properly, it's subject to oxidation, and uneven stresses could stretch or distort it. Its magnetic properties are susceptible to decline too.

Durability and longevity of tapes

Unlike hard drives or SSDs, there are no active parts on tapes, so they have a lower risk of damage. In addition, tapes can be stored in optimum conditions that may extend their lifetime.

Tapes also suffer from some of the expected shortcomings of older technologies. Reading from and writing to tapes takes longer than other backup methods. There is a higher chance of data corruption or problems reading data from tapes than, say, disk-based backup.

What is the major problem of tape drives? ›

One major challenge is the slower data access speeds compared to disk storage. Retrieving data from tapes can be time-consuming due to the sequential nature of tape reading, which requires winding and unwinding the tape to locate specific data.

Even an uncompressed tape has read speeds up to 400 MBps. This rate is far faster than the first-generation LTO tapes, which had a maximum speed of 20 MBps for an uncompressed tape or 40 MBps for a compressed tape. However, it's still much slower than the access times of disk and flash.

One major challenge is the slower data access speeds compared to disk storage. Retrieving data from tapes can be time-consuming due to the sequential nature of tape reading, which requires winding and unwinding the tape to locate specific data.

Tape in extensions are quick and inexpensive to install, but they only last 4-8 weeks and can damage the natural hair.