Tape Still a Potent Force

Sandeep Dutta
Vice President Storage, 
Systems and Technology Group, 
IBM India/SA

As the war of words among the proselytizers of disk and tape-based storages continues unabated, VARIndia talked to Sandeep Dutta, Vice President Storage, Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/SA,  to delve deep into the issue.  Sandeep is of the view that tape-based storage was, and will remain, a potent force to reckon within the technology world. 

Gone are the days when most SMBs had only a limited budget for capital IT purchases. So, they were not interested in buying storage solutions. Today, the market potential is unbelievably high. In fact, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are a segment that worldwide spends an estimated US$234 billion (about Rs.10.53 lakh crore) per year on IT products. Sandeep Dutta, Vice President Storage, Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/SA says, "Information and applications boom is happening not only within large organizations but is growing faster in midsize and small businesses." 

In India also, SMBs are heading towards a data deluge and given the requirements of effective storage, management and retrieval of data storage has assumed the role of a critical IT enabler in today's time.  As per IDC, the Enterprise Storage market in India is expected to witness a double-digit growth. A significant portion of this growth would be contributed by organizations (especially SMB enterprises) in cities other than the top four metros.  

Tape Vs Disk

Data is growing at an unprecedented rate and this growth rate is putting extreme pressure on corporate IT departments, responsible for storing this new data.

While disks have been undergoing evolution with prices of disk drives dropping, making disk an attractive option for some tape-based applications, the same is true for tape as well. Tape vendors continue to develop and deliver large tape cartridges, reducing the cost per gigabyte. This makes the cost differential between the tape and disk unchanged over the years. 

Sandeep says, "Tape continues to figure significantly into IT infrastructures for high-capacity storage backup. Its unique attributes can help users manage their storage requirements and contribute to the ever-present value of tape in the storage hierarchy." 

It is true that tape is being replaced for day-to-day backups by disk and online solutions, but it doesn't go away entirely. Since disk-based, online, and cloud storage and backup solutions become more cost-effective and readily available, the role of tape in the enterprises is undergoing change.  

It is said that some things do not really change in IT. The same can be said about tapes that have continued to evolve and survive as a preferred mode of storage despite significant evolutions in disks. 

It may be possible that some smaller SMBs have already moved away from tape or have never used tape at all. But in the case of larger SMBs, a hybrid of tape and other technologies is being used.  

According to Sandeep, "Despite all those cons, tape does still fit into a contemporary backup and archive strategy in a couple of key areas. Firstly, it still makes sense for long-term storage of large volumes of data. By long-term, we really mean those month-end or quarterly backups that have to be kept for maybe five or seven years. It makes very little sense to keep these large static backup images on disk, consuming power, cooling and maintenance budget when the data is accessed so infrequently." 

However, according to Sandeep, Tape also has some disadvantages since the back and restoration is time consuming and due to the usage of cartridges it is often subjected to physical damage which leads to data loss. The tapes are high maintenance due to high wear and tear.   

Tape and SMBs

The growing importance of SMBs is certainly good news for tape. Tape continues to be the most cost-effective, flexible and scalable medium for high-capacity storage backup for SMBs. "There is less of an initial investment than other formats and tape is easily transportable for outside sharing," adds Sandeep.

Sandeep lists the following Advantages of Tape

• Removable: store it away to help protect it from viruses, sabotage and other corruption 

• Scalable: add more cartridges, not drives 

• Portable: move it to another site to avoid destruction in the event the first site suffers threat or damage 

• Reliable