Portability-wise, tape is handy because you can easily store your data off-site by moving tapes to a secure location. That's ideal for disaster-recovery planning, for which off-site data vaulting is crucial. Still, portability has its risks. Tapes and, consequently, your corporate information can be stolen at or en route to an off-site storage facility.
Heftier disk systems obviously aren't as easily transported to an off-site location for disaster recovery. But one way to use disk technology for disaster recovery--and this works only if your data doesn't change much--is by mirroring pairs of disk arrays over a WAN link. This isn't always practical, however, given the cost of bandwidth and the relatively low speed of many corporate WAN links.
When it comes to storage speed, disk wins hands down for backing up and restoring your data. D2D has a higher data rate than tape, generally at least two to three times that of the newest tape drives (not taking into account linear access and media-automation access times). It accesses data randomly, which is more efficient than linear access. It restores data with standard file tools, which have obvious ease-of-use advantages over, say, tape backup software.
One D2D product that takes a unique approach to supporting both disk and tape is Quantum Corp.'s DX30 disk-based backup device. The DX30 has a tape interface to the SAN with standard backup and restore software as if it were a tape device, but it operates at disk speed.
Taking point-in-time data snapshots is a big plus for disk as well. If you need to update a critical database, for example, a D2D device can take a snapshot, and if you need to back out of the upgrade, the device can quickly restore your data according to the snapshot
Discover the benefits of scalable backbone and network services for application and cloud providers.
Network automation is gaining momentum. Here's how you can drive this powerful technology to its full potential.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
