The Truth about Tape Backup

Remember when CRT displays were still popular and LCDs were quite expensive? You might not think this particular problem has anything to do with our given topic, however, allow me to expand. Back in the old days, CRT displays were all we had, and were quite a reliable way to control graphics. However, with technology developments, we reached a stage where we find CRT displays obsolete and quite harmful.

Nevertheless, most photographers and graphic designers still use the obsolete CRT because of its capacity to display accurate colors (more accurate colors than LCDs anyway). The same goes for Tape Backup – tape backup is about to go in the history of computers as being one of the oldest means to backup sensitive data, however, you would be amazed that people still use it on a medium scale. While it is true that tape libraries are catching up fast, tape backups are not dead, just in the stage before that.

Tape backup more reliable than disk based backups

Disk based backups are used nowadays due to their speed. Since corporations and companies need to backup tremendous amounts of data weekly, they need a method that will not take them another week just to backup everything. However, tape backup software has proved to be a lot more reliable than disk based backups since it seems to preserve itself better in time compared to disk backups. Of course, this is somewhat amusing – while tape backups might preserve in time, it is nearly impossible to handle them.

Backup tape

Touching tape destroys it, therefore any human interaction is limited (hence the paradox), not to mention the fact that analysts have proven that somewhere between 42 percent and 71 percent of all tape backup fail at some point with no particular excuse. Tape backups have their own points, however it is better to avoid them rather than use them if you are serious about the data you want to preserve.

The issues with tape backup is similar to the one described with CRTs, some nostalgic users use it due to the fact that it has some advantages, however, it would be better to consider the next best option, and go for hard drives backup even if they have their own disadvantages to work around.

Tape backup might prove to have a better encryption

Disk based backups are generally more efficient than tape backups, however, they should not be considered as the ultimate solution. Monitoring and managing backup processes is still mandatory even with disk-based backups since just about anything can be broken and destroyed, not to mention stolen and revealed.

Data tapes

The great part about tape backup nowadays is that since it is so obsolete it might prove to have a better encryption method than disk drives. Allow me to explain – since few people use it, few people know how to work around it in order to find out what the data in those tapes is, thus making it a great way to hide data. Aside from that, backup data is as obsolete as dinosaurs and HCs.