News

posted on 13 March 2008 03:49

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An LTO Consortium survey has found that more than two thirds of disk-only backup users aim to add tape to their data protection schemes. Tape is the new green.

Actually it's the old green but users are re-discovering it.

Over 80-percent of the pro-tape respondents plan to add tape storage solutions within the next 12 months. That's good news for Tandberg Data!

The US survey, carried out in the last 2007 quarter, focused on the views of more than 200 network administrators and mid-level tech specialists at mid-size to large companies throughout the United States.

According to the survey, 58 percent of the respondents use a combination of disk and tape for long term archiving, 24 percent use tape exclusively, and 18 percent employ a disk-only approach. In this group, 68 percent of the current disk-only users plan to start using tape for long-term archiving, and over half (58 percent) plan to add tape for short-term data protection.

Cindy Grossman, Tape Storage Systems VP at IBM, was pleased (no, really), and said: "The integration of tape storage into a tiered information infrastructure is highly strategic for customers, due to its low cost of ownership, low energy consumption and portability for data protection. LTO tape technology is a perfect choice for enterprise and mid-sized customer with its proven reliability, high capacity, high performance and ability to address data security with built-in encryption and data retention requirements for the evolving data center."

David Geddes, SVP at Fleishman-Hillard Research, who oversaw the study, said: "The survey findings suggest that disk-only users may be experiencing a bit of buyer's remorse. We found that a wide majority of companies that employ purely disk-based approaches are looking to quickly include tape in their backup and archiving strategies."

Studies have shown that tape-based backup and archiving solutions can deliver substantial total cost of ownership benefits and energy savings compared to disk-only altenatives.

[Phil Robson, news editor.]