Comparison of digital storage media Access Storage capacity Write speed Read speed Study retrieval time Life

expectancy Relative cost Use Magnetic discs Random access Up to 4000 GB Fast Fast Few seconds Optical media Sequential access Up to 30 GB Slow Fast 10 s or more Magnetic tape Sequential access Up to 500 GB Slow Slow 1 min or more

Excellent; May get Excellent if handled properly Finite corrupted Very high Low Very low Online; Immediate Nearline; long-term archive; Offline; long-term archive; access Disaster recovery Disaster recovery

Table modified from reference 9 http://www.ntbackup.us/Articles/tape-vs-disk-backups.htm For many years tape media was the only choice for backup due to its cost advantage. The chart below shows the recent trends in tape media prices vs hard disk media prices. As you can see, as long ago as 2002, hard disks caught up with tape media and now the debate between the two media types is more complex. This article is not intended to be conclude whether one type of media is better than the other. Indeed the sands are continually shifting with new and better tape drives released and smaller and higher capacity hard drives arriving almost weekly. Also, the answer to the question depends on the application and type of organisation. Instead this article provide a short framework of criteria that a Network Administrator should consider when making the decision.

Portability

Advantages of Tape More compact and lighter wieght than hard disk.

Advantages of Disk

Reliability

Low MTBF (mean time between failure). Hard disk is invariably significantly more reliable than tape. The only exception to this is that tape can in some instances have better resistance to shock. No winding or seeking to find information. Within backup applications this contributes to much faster backup and restore times. Hard disk access times are typically 10 milliseconds whilst it can take minutes to seek the the correct place on a tape. Whilst each tape is specified to have only a limited number of read/write cycles, hard disks have virtually no limitation in this regard. As shown in the graph, hard disks

Random Access

Long Life

Price

seems to be cheaper than equivalent tape media. However this trend may not continue if new tape products are launched. Speed Raw data transfer rates tend to be superior, although the interface via which the device is connected can tend to limit the transfer rate. With the advent of USB2 and SATA, the raw speed advantage of hard disk is confirmed. Instant ability to write over data, whereas tapes can require erase cycles and re-tensioning

Rewritabilty

http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/tape-backup-vs-hard-disk-backup-what-does-the-future-hold/

I was frequenting Spiceworks earlier today and came across a post asking if tape was legacy. I think what they were asking is whether backup to tape is the kind of legacy technology today that we see with VHSthere are still a few out there but the technology is on its way out. I realize that there are still advantages with tape when it comes to large volume backups and the ability to physically move the backup media to an offsite location. But even with these advantages it seems that backups to disk (and dare I say to the cloud?) have so many more advantages. Lets do a quick comparison of tape and disk storage to consider the advantages of each: Capacity As of 2011, the highest capacity tape cartridges (T10000C) can store 5 TB of uncompressed data (source Wikipedia), while hard drives have followed Kryders law (much like Moores law) and doubled areal density every two to four years putting disk drive capacity currently somewhere around 4 TB. This capacity is comparable to that of tapes. In addition, newer SSD will have even more capacity than existing disk drives while at the same time offering storage in a smaller and smaller physical size. Add to this the fact that SSD drives are without the moving parts and power requirements of existing drives and it seems that disk storage will far surpass the capacity benefits of tape storage in the near future. Speed

Several tape drives Ive looked at have write speeds approaching 500 MB/s with LTO-5 claiming speeds of 800 MB/s. The maximum speed of a tape drive depends of course on the limitations imposed by physics on the moving parts and magnetic ribbon. The same limitations also apply to the spindles and platens of a typical hard disk as they rotate inside the disk enclosure. A typical 7200 rpm hard drive might have write speeds around 130 MB/s. However, if we again consider SSD disk drives the typical sequential write speeds are closer to 280 MB/s. These speeds may not be at the same level as tape; however consider the fact that SSD is a newer technology and speeds are constantly increasing. Add to this the important point that a tape read/write is a linear process requiring the tape to move to a specific point before data can be written or read while disks allow for immediate read/write functionality and it seems again that hard disks are the long-term winner. Cost Call me frugal, but cost is often the most important part of any purchase in my opinion. All else considered equal, I will purchase the lower cost item every time. And this is where I think hard disk drives really shine. Tape storage requires a physical tape drive which can range anywhere from $1,400 to well over $12,000. The tapes themselves range anywhere from $30 to $90 per tape and these costs add up over time. Compare this with a 6TB WD drive for $329 on NewEgg and cost pretty much cinches the deal. Ok, so there you have it. Three very brief (sometimes read as not thoroughly researched or highly opinionated) feature comparisons and I think we can say that backup to disk is the clear winner if not today than in the very near future. Theres a reason for the industry moving away from tape backups and towards disk backups. All I have left to say is that I hope you found this brief journey down a rabbit hole to be as fun and informative as it was for me to write it.