Archiving and tape backup
There is a reason why tape backup technology has stuck around as long as it has: It works. See how tape vendors keep up in a changing market and what developments have made tape the ultimate archiving tool. Garner tips from experts on how to get the most out of tape backup, as well as some best practices.
Top Stories
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Feature
05 Dec 2024
Project Silica takes archive data through the looking glass
As data grows, so does the need to store it. Microsoft's Project Silica is offering an archive alternative to tape with the promise of permanence. Continue Reading
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Tip
04 Dec 2024
Why data backup is important
Not every organization has a backup infrastructure in place. There are several reasons why that is a mistake, including recovery costs and rising threats to critical data. Continue Reading
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Answer
25 Sep 2019
What are best practices for archiving emails?
Archiving email is crucial to the business continuity and disaster recovery process. For example, consider how cybersecurity and cloud storage can integrate with the archiving. Continue Reading
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News
25 Sep 2019
Igneous Systems DataProtect gets software-only release
Igneous DataProtect's software-only version is aimed at cloud-first customers. It has the same capabilities as the NAS appliance version, including integration with DataDiscover. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Aug 2019
How tape backup systems improve data protection
Have you analyzed your data protection lately? Tape backup could be a savior if you get hit with a ransomware attack or other malware. Learn more about five tape-related terms. Continue Reading
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News
12 Aug 2019
TACC updates archive with Quantum tape technology
TACC added a Quantum tape library to its Ranch long-term storage system for better space allocation control and to replace an aging Oracle HSM-based archive system. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jul 2019
Quantum CEO looks to modernize data storage platforms
Quantum continues support of legacy tape, NAS and disk, but its products are now 'software-defined and hyper-converged.' CEO Jamie Lerner says its SEC probe is winding down. Continue Reading
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News
13 Jun 2019
Solix archiving takes files, databases, email to the cloud
The new Solix archiving product is the result of close development work with Microsoft. SolixCloud Enterprise Archiving features a focus on unstructured data. Continue Reading
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News
04 Jun 2019
Penn State Health seeks centralized backup, picks Commvault
As Penn State Health's data grew across its vast network of hospitals and practices, it turned to Commvault for centralized backup and a way to archive petabytes of research data. Continue Reading
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News
04 Apr 2019
Compute-heavy Unitrends appliances allow on-the-box recovery
Unitrends offers up extra compute and memory in low-capacity backup appliances as an alternative to using the public cloud for small companies and remote offices. Continue Reading
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News
29 Mar 2019
Survey: Data protection challenges, costs keep growing
Despite a great deal of focus on security these days, data protection tools have not kept up with emerging technologies, according to a new Dell EMC data protection survey. Continue Reading
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News
20 Mar 2019
Aparavi update adds better data classification, more clouds
Aparavi updates Active Archive with customizable data classification and tagging capabilities for easier future retrieval and improved metadata search. Continue Reading
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News
18 Mar 2019
How is tape backup doing in 2019?
Industry experts say tape isn't going away and the technology is actually improving. The problem, they say, is vendors aren't talking enough about this 'old-school' backup method. Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Mar 2019
Jon Toigo, data storage analyst and author remembered
Editors and colleagues pay tribute to the respected data storage analyst, pundit and author, who was a longtime Storage magazine columnist and TechTarget contributor and speaker. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jan 2019
Vanderbilt books Spectra tape library for research data
Research data can accumulate fast. A Spectra Logic tape library stores petabytes for Vanderbilt's research center, and the university plans to use far more backup storage space. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jan 2019
XenData introduces magnetic tape backup migration service
XenData now offers a service to move magnetic tape backup data to either a newer tape format or to cloud, allowing customers with old tapes to get rid of legacy systems. Continue Reading
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News
14 Jan 2019
Backup hardware devices: 2018 Products of the Year finalists
Some finalists in the 2018 Products of the Year backup hardware category aim to entice data-rich SMBs, or carve their niche by branching out beyond backup and recovery. Continue Reading
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News
26 Sep 2018
OwnBackup Salesforce tools include archive and blockchain
OwnBackup's fall release includes a new data archiving product, a blockchain-powered compliance component and improved capabilities for its Salesforce protection app. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Sep 2018
Consider storage backup devices for your data protection strategy
A secondary storage device could be an important element of your data protection platform. Analyze accessibility, speed, scalability and cost before jumping in. Continue Reading
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News
22 Aug 2018
Igneous Systems rocks unstructured data protection for NAS
Igneous expands its integrations with network-attached storage, aiming to offer easier, unified backup of unstructured data. Volume and complexity of that data can be challenging. Continue Reading
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News
14 Aug 2018
New Quantum backup appliance brings Veeam to tape
Integrated disk backup appliances are now common, but Quantum and Veeam have taken the converged architecture to tape backups to eliminate the need for a dedicated external server. Continue Reading
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News
13 Aug 2018
Rubrik backup helps Castilleja School move to cloud
California school sees Rubrik converged data protection and AWS S3 as key building blocks for a multi-cloud strategy, with archiving as the first step. Continue Reading
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Answer
24 Jul 2018
How do I know if cloud-based archiving is the right choice?
If you don't need to access old data much, cloud archiving could work out well. That's just one consideration, though, for deciding which archival platform to employ. Continue Reading
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News
19 Jul 2018
Commvault architecture overhaul reduces product count
By consolidating more than 20 offerings into four repackaged product sets, Commvault moves to simplify the purchasing process and eliminate its architecture's 'features sprawl.' Continue Reading
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News
12 Jul 2018
Tape storage capacity plays important role as data increases
There's a long runway for tape, with hundreds of terabytes of storage capacity soon available on a single cartridge. Flash, disk, the cloud and tape will all be key for storage. Continue Reading
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News
05 Jul 2018
New Quantum CEO Lerner sees a future in rich media
The former Cisco exec hopes to use Quantum's high-ingest technology and tape storage to serve a growing need in the surveillance, medical and entertainment markets. Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2018
Archive360 mixes and matches cloud data archiving elements
Archive360's Archive2Azure previously supported file and message archiving. Now, users can archive Salesforce and healthcare data, among other elements, to the Azure cloud. Continue Reading
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Feature
24 May 2018
The evolution of backing up to tape and where it stands
Tape backup continues to have a cost advantage over disk, and there are still some use cases where the medium makes sense and will do so for the foreseeable future. Continue Reading
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News
25 Apr 2018
Cohesity CloudSpin serves up test/dev data
Converged secondary storage vendor Cohesity brings copy data management into the cloud for DevOps with CloudSpin and public cloud snapshot API integration. Continue Reading
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Podcast
30 Mar 2018
Igneous Systems CEO: Data protection market transforming
Igneous is seeking to take hold of a market that's 'up for grabs.' The vendor's Hybrid Storage Cloud provides backup and archive of unstructured data, as well as data management. Continue Reading
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News
07 Mar 2018
Spectra tape library line grows with Stack, T950v
Spectra Logic tape library choices now include the scalable Stack and a cheaper version of its previous T950 line. Tape can be a key storage element, as data sets continue to grow. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jan 2018
Backup hardware devices: 2017 Products of the Year finalists
Backup and disaster recovery hardware products that made the initial cut extend into the cloud and have more support for software-defined storage, data analytics and even tape. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Jul 2017
How a backup data retention policy combats growing storage needs
While a thorough backup system can protect your data, it can also lead to a rapid increase in the amount of data you have stored. A policy-based storage system may be able to help. Continue Reading
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Answer
28 Nov 2016
How can I ensure that my tape backup technology is secure?
With the portability of tapes and the ability to store terabytes of data on a single cartridge, appropriate security of tape backup storage is imperative. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Jun 2016
Tape archiving tips for a better storage strategy
Studies show that tape archives are a comparatively cheaper method of long-term data retention. Explore how to use active archive and other storage technologies with a tape system. Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Jun 2016
Tape archive remains the recording medium of choice
Tape archiving offers low-cost, long-term data protection in a variety of industries, keeping it atop the list of data center backup technologies. Continue Reading
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Answer
27 Feb 2015
Tape vs. disk: Which offers the greatest energy efficiency?
Jon Toigo looks at the factors that determine whether disk or tape is more energy-efficient. Continue Reading
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News
16 Sep 2014
LTO tape vendors announce LTO-9 and LTO-10
LTO tape vendors extend the LTO roadmap to include generations 9 and 10 with increasing capacity and transfer rates. Continue Reading
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Answer
29 Apr 2014
How to estimate the lifespan of backup tape media
Brien Posey offers advice on how to estimate the useful lifespan of backup tape media based on how it is used, in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Feb 2014
Backup targets: Tape libraries and VTLs
Tape drives, tape libraries and virtual tape libraries are among the popular backup target options available today. Continue Reading
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Definition
05 Jun 2013
LTFS (Linear Tape File System)
LTFS (Linear Tape File System) is a file system specification that allows Linear Tape-Open (LTO) storage technology to be indexed. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Apr 2013
Pros and cons of backup tape encryption
Independent backup expert Brien Posey outlines what's good and what's bad about backup tape encryption in this tip. Continue Reading
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Answer
05 Apr 2013
Solving SQL VSS writer problems during backup
Backup expert Brien Posey explains how to solve common SQL VSS writer problems users can face during SQL database backups. Continue Reading
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Feature
30 Jan 2013
The king of all backup jobs: Backing up the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the ultimate backup job, preserving petabytes of Internet data and created from turning physical files into digital ones. Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Jun 2012
Protecting petabytes: Best practices for big data backup
How do you protect the massive data sets? Learn the best practices and products used for big data backup disaster recovery. Continue Reading
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Tip
18 May 2012
SAN backup and recovery
Moving data can complicate your backup efforts. In this tip, you’ll learn backup goals for SAN environments and backup methods to achieve those goals. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Dec 2010
Data archiving techniques: Choosing the best archive media
Read this tip about data archiving techniques and to discover what's the best archive media for your organization: tape, disk, optical or the cloud. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
09 Aug 2010
An off-site tape storage tutorial: Tape backup and recovery best practices
Tape still fills the role of media for choice for off-site vaulting, but organizations have other options such as the cloud and replication for securing data for disaster recovery. Continue Reading
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News
28 Jun 2010
As the WORM turns: The pros and cons of WORM disk vs. tape
Learn about how WORM disk is still an important option for data retention, and about the pros and cons of using WORM disk vs. tape. Continue Reading
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Tip
14 Jun 2010
Buying your first backup tape library: What you need to know
In this tip, find out what you need to know when buying your first tape library, including when to consider a library, the cost of libraries and which format best fits your needs. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 May 2010
Data archiving best practices: The difference between backups and archives
In this collection of data archiving tips, learn data archiving best practices and the differences between backups and archives. Continue Reading
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Feature
20 Apr 2010
Best practices for reusing data backup tapes
W. Curtis Preston answers common questions about reusing backup tapes in this Q&A. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Apr 2010
Buying the best backup tape library: Tape libraries vs. tape autoloaders
Learn about how to buy the best backup tape library and the key differences between tape libraries and tape autoloaders in this tip. Continue Reading
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News
31 Mar 2010
Choosing a data archiving strategy: Disk archiving vs. tape archiving
Data archiving is vital for most companies, but which is best for you, archiving to disk, tape or both? Continue Reading
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Answer
11 Mar 2010
Are LTO-4 tapes compatible with other versions of LTO tape technology?
Dave Ellis explains what LTO-4 is and its compatibility with other versions of LTO in this expert response. Continue Reading
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Feature
18 Feb 2010
LTO tape technology continues to evolve with LTO 5
W. Curtis Preston, TechTarget executive editor and independent backup expert, outlines how LTO tape differs from other tape media, discusses the various generations of LTO tape, and the pros and cons of LTO in this Q&A. Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Jan 2010
Archiving storage vs. data backup storage: The dos and don'ts of using backups and data archives
Learn the differences between data backup software and data archiving tools and the dos and don'ts associated with each in this FAQ with Curtis Preston. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Nov 2009
An introduction to data backup tape rotation schemes
Learn about the different types of data backup tape rotation schemes to determine which one is best for your environment. Continue Reading
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Tip
22 Jun 2009
Symantec Backup Exec troubleshooting performance tips
If you're using Backup Exec and your performance isn't what it should be, some troubleshooting may be in order. Here's a list of potential things to look out for. Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Jun 2009
Troubleshooting data backup error log messages
Knowing what how to read your data backup error log messages can help you save time fixing common backup problems. Learn about the most common backup error messages in this tip. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Feb 2009
How to optimize your backup tape rotation strategy
Backup tape rotation is an essential part of any good data backup plan. Here's a look at some of the more common tape rotation strategies and the pros and cons of each. Continue Reading
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Tip
15 Apr 2008
The cost of tape vs. disk data backup
Here's how to determine the cost of disk vs. tape in your data backup environment. Continue Reading
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Tip
05 Jun 2007
How to destroy data on backup tapes
This tip offers guidelines for destroying data on backup tapes, with information about degaussing, tape cartridge destruction, tape reuse and record keeping. Continue Reading
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Tip
01 May 2007
How to estimate the lifespan of LTO tapes
This tip outlines what you need to consider when estimating the lifespan of LTO tape. It's not as black and white as LTO tape manufacturers would like you to believe. Continue Reading