Jump to: Why Backup? What should I be backing up? What can I backup to? Cartridge Rotation Schemes
The cardinal rule of computing is "Backup, backup, backup." Why? Fire, theft, computer hardware or software malfunction, accidental deletion of important data, the list goes on. Not backing up your data is the equivalent of owning your own home and not insuring it.
Tip: Don't forget to store your backups somewhere safe off-site. And be aware that a fireproof safe is NOT the place to store your computer backup media. Fireproof means it will protect paper, but optical media / digital media has a lower melting point than thatt at which paper will ignite.
This page will give you a few pointers with regard to backups, the commonly used hardware, and approximate costs. Please feel free to contact Ian to discuss your needs further, or to arrange for a quotation.
Due to the Internet and the globalization of manufacturing and service-oriented industries, businesses are collecting and analysing data at an alarming rate. As organizations data warehouses grow, the threat of data loss due to human error or natural disaster carries a potentially larger fiscal price. Consider the current costs of restoring critical information after data loss. Click HERE to learn more.
Any data that is important to you, and whose loss you wish to protect against. Some of the obvious ones include:
| Company data |
| My Documents folders on each PC |
| E-mail and addresses |
| Accounting data (and for example, in MYOB you would also want to backup any customised forms) |
| Internet Favorites folder |
Well, we need to look at the following to answer that...
| Are you backing up just one PC, or a network? |
| Do you require scheduled, automated backups? |
| What amounts of data do you currently require to be backed up, and what are your expectations for the future in this regard? |
| Which backup device might best suit your needs? |
Choice of backup hardware is dictated mainly by how much data you have that requires backing up, keeping in mind that your required capacity will increase over time. Small business would often be looking at a choice of either using a DVD burner, or a tape drive. A DVD burner will set you back only around $130 for the latest and greatest.
CD media can hold up to 700Mb. Nowadays that is not enough for much at all.
DVD single-layer media holds 4.7Gb of data, whilst the new dual-layer media holds 8.5Gb.
Tapes for use in tape drives comes in quite a few flavours, so please read on below for more about this type of storage...
With a proliferation of tape drive formats and capacities to choose from, deciding on a tape drive for your back-up environment can be a confusing. However with the advent of newer technologies, we can exclude DAT and Travan type tape drives as they are showing their age.
So what are the options? When you consider data growth, back-up windows, budgets, long-term storage requirements and compatibility with existing hardware you are confronted with what is a very important decision.
The likely suspects for the savvy buyer are DLT, LTO and AIT.
Digital Linear Tape (DLT) offers the next level of high capacity, performance, compatibility and price. DLT put forth native capacities of 40GB and transfer speeds of 3MBps which made dreams come true for larger workgroups and small enterprises. Super Digital Linear Tape (SDLT) is the next generation of DLT technology. SDLT uses a more updated tape format than the DLT but maintains backwards compatibility. It is more expensive but doubles the capacity and performance of the DLT, making it more attractive for users looking to back-up terabytes of data in a short amount of time. SDLT can back-up up to 110GB on a single cartridge and endures transfer speeds of 11MBps.
Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is most comparable to SDLT as the drives feature a native capacity of 100GB and serves a transfer rate of 16MBps. As with SDLT, LTO is aimed at the most demanding of backup networks. Cost is a major factor – if needs of high performance, advance error correction and drive error logging capabilities are a must, then the price tag on LTO can be justified.
Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) technology is well known for its unique ‘Memory in Cassette’ (MIC) feature, which acts as a data index to record and store format and file location information. Essentially AIT tapes load faster and halve the file search times.
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AIT-1 - 35Gb native (uncompressed) up to a maximum of 90Gb* (compressed). |
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AIT-2 - 50Gb native (uncompressed) up to a maximum of 130Gb* (compressed). |
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AIT-3 - 100Gb native (uncompressed) up to a maximum of 260Gb* (compressed). |
* Compression depends on the file types being backed up; if files are pre-compressed (such as MPEG, JPEG, Zip etc) then little or no additional compression will occur.
What's on the horizon? Keep an eye out for SDLT, LTO-2 and S-AIT.
As with the SDLT-110, the next generation storage capacities rise from native 160GB, 320GB, 640GB to 1200GB. Native transfer rates begin to soar from 11MBps, 16MBps, 50MBps and as far as 100MBps.
Close behind is LTO-2, LTO-3 and LTO-4, with native capacities of 200GB, 400GB and 800GB, and transfer speeds of 20MBps, 40MBps and 80MBps.
However, S-AIT seems to be hurdling further with AIT-4, AIT-5 and AIT-6 due for its debut in the next three years. Competing with SDLT, it has transfer speeds of 48MBps through to 96MBps.
These next
generation ‘super’ tape technologies incorporate half-inch tape which offers
roughly five times the capacity and performance of standard DLT, AIT and LTO
tapes.
Tape formats fall into two categories: Linear and Helical scan. Linear tape
formats can be applied to the same theory of audio tape recorders, where data is
written in tracks running the length of the tape. Helical scan tape formats are
more akin to video recorders, where data is recorded on diagonal stripes across
the tape.
By committing to back up your data, you have taken an important first step in protecting your information assets and, in some cases, the existence of your organization. But simply committing to back up data is not enough to adequately protect yourself from the many perils that can jeopardize your critical information. Click HERE to learn more about backup strategies and cartridge rotation schemes.
Please feel free to contact Ian to discuss your needs further, or to arrange for a quotation.