Innovations Keep Tape Storage Relevant Today and Tomorrow

It’s time for tape to stand up for itself. Too often during the past few years have the critics gotten their chance to bash the technology as being dated, ineffective and no longer viable. Such claims are simply not true.

Over time, companies around the globe have relied on offsite tape storage as a security blanket to protect confidential and mission-critical information. The technology has more than proven its worth, and continues to do so through innovation and by continually demonstrating data protection and recovery successes.

Lauren Whitehouse, a data management industry analyst with 20 years’ experience is one expert who’s got tape’s back.  Lauren recently spoke with TechTarget about the role of offsite tape vaulting and was kind enough to mention Iron Mountain as a leader in the field.

According to the expert, not only is tape an important technology today, it will continue to serve a purpose moving forward, despite the continued onslaught from critics and rise of cloud computing. Many companies, she said, are teaching an old dog new tricks when it comes to backing up and safeguarding enterprise information.

“The tape drive manufacturers are continuing to drive innovation with their technology to speed up the performance of tape drives and, in addition, increase the capacity that can be held on tape media,” Whitehouse told TechTarget.

What that translates to, she said, is the need for less investment on the part of companies looking to protect data.

“So, today, you would require a lot less tape cartridges than you would in the past for maybe the same backup set, which makes it easier when you’re talking about backup and recovery and not have to do a lot of tape handling,” Whitehouse added.

Of course, where there’s tape there will always be a partner organization to store and secure them. Well, at least there should be. The expert said working with an information management company to hash out an agreement on services that benefits both sides is always needed.

They say you can’t stop the haters from hating, but there’s nothing wrong with correcting them every once in a while.

For example, Enterprise Strategy Group demonstrated that the notion tape will soon be extinct is untrue. According to the organization, tape’s lead in the backup sector is actually expected to increase during the next several years, experiencing 45 percent annual growth through 2015.

To quote Whitehouse, tape “is not going away.”

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