Tape drive is basically as data storage device, where data is read or write on a magnetic tape. Unlike a disk drive random access storage technology, a tape drives provides sequential access storage.
Because of it low per unit cost and ability to hold data for long archival purposes, Tape drive is used for archiving data and offline data storage.
Advantages of using Tape Drive
Reliability
The biggest advantage a Tape drive offers is the data storage reliability. Tape drive can store data for much longed duration as compared to sequential access storage. As compared to hard drives, a Tape drive is accessed only during a backup or recovery operations. Hence the life of the Tape drive is much longer than the hard drives and similar storage devices.
Power Saving
Tape drives consumes much less power than the common hard disk drives. Ease of storage : As the Tape cartridges are much smaller , it can be easily used to store offsite data and allows the data to survive, even if the computer is destroyed or lost.
Ease of Use
Because of the support which is available for the tape drives, there are lots of good and easy to use softwares which can make restoring data from a tape drive an easy and smooth process.
Best suited for full system backup
As you would not want to write and overwrite the data onto a Tape drive, with its extreme data storage capacity, Tape drive can be used to take the full backup of your computer .
One disadvantage which is often pitched while in debate with tape drive vs optical drive, is that Tape drive is not fast enough. Now with LTO Ultrium technology , storing 6.25 TB of data on LTO-6 cartridge takes at most 5 hours only. With such a fast speed, Tape drive can easily compete with the latest in optical drive storage technology.
Tape drive is the future of data storage
In the age of optical data storage devices, when I say that Tape drive is the future of data storage, it might sound little untrue. But, think in that way, as the amount of data getting generated is multiplying, only a tape drive can offer multiple Terabyte of data storage in a secure and trusted way.
In Fact Fuzi films in japan and IBM in germany has already build tape devices which are just 10 cm by 2cm and can hold 35 terabytes of data. That is 35 million books on a single tape.At present, no optical storage device can beat that. Add to this the amount of security a tape storage can offer and you have a deadly mixture of safe and secure massive data storage solution which can take the future of data storage by storm.
Where to find a good Tape Drive for data storage
Finding a good tape drive is not an easy process. There are options in the market, but with less technical knowledge, for a common user it might be one of the toughest decision to make while deciding about the storage technology to be used.
CXP is the tape drive specialist and expert in tape backup software, tape to computer solutions, and backup to tape solutions. They provides Tape storage data backup solutions from IBM, HP, Quantum, Tandberg and Sony.
Article by Vishal
Meet Vishal Gaikar, the tech wizard hailing from Pune, India, who's on a mission to decode the digital universe one blog post at a time. When he's not tinkering with gadgets or diving deep into the digital realm, you can find him concocting the perfect cup of chai or plotting his next adventure. Follow his tech escapades on Twitter and buckle up for a wild ride through the world of innovation and geekery!