Alternatives to tape backup

You may ask, isn't tape an anachronism in the age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of whiz-bang, random-access storage media? In many ways it is, but because of the nature of backup it doesn't really matter that tape is slow and sequential-access. Remember, tape is cheap. Businesses use tape because they find it to be a cost-effective backup solution.

However, if you have any problems with tape backup, you'll probably be interested to know that there are several alternatives to tape.

Backup to NAS devices

NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices are attached directly to your network and can act as a backup store. Obviously, it's very convenient to backup to NAS and retrieve files; there's no disks or tapes or insert and remove, and NAS devices can be treated as just another server. There are many NAS devices specially designed for small businesses. Excellent for network backup.

Backup to REV drive

In April 2004, Iomega released the REV drive - a new storage device that has greater capacity than tape and is 5 to 8 times faster. Key features are:

backup to REV drive is much faster than tape backup and have higher capacity
REV drive units are more durable than tape
While tape requires regular cleaning, no cleaning is required for REV drive units

Backup to REV drive may in fact prove more cost-effective for your business than tape, depending on your backup scheme and other factors. Otherwise, REV backup is very similar to tape backup in principle.

Final notes

As always, invest in a quality backup program. Many backup program will support a number of backup devices, so there's no need to buy specialist REV backup software or NAS backup software.

> This article was brought to you by BackupAssist - data backup software

How to use this article on your website for free

Simply follow the instructions below to copy the html code for this article, which you can then use on your own website for free.

Step 1

Select all the text in the textbox below. The quickest way to do this is to click inside the box and hold down on the CTRL + A keyboard combination.

Step 2

Copy the text by holding down on the CTRL + C keyboard combination, or RIGHT CLICK and then 'copy'.

Step 3

Paste into the html code of your own page.

<!-- // Start of Article Code // -->		
<h1>Alternatives to tape backup</h1>

<p>You may ask, isn't tape an anachronism in the age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of  whiz-bang, random-access storage media? In many ways it is, but because of the nature of backup it doesn't really matter that tape is slow and sequential-access. Remember, tape is cheap. Businesses use tape because they find  it to be a cost-effective backup solution.</p>
<p>However, if you have any problems with tape backup, you'll probably be interested to know that there are several alternatives to tape.</p>   

<h2>Backup to NAS devices</h2>

<p>NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices are attached directly to your network and can act as a backup store.  Obviously, it's very convenient to <a href="../news/backup-to-nas.html">backup to NAS</a> and retrieve files; there's no disks or tapes or insert and remove, and NAS devices can be treated as just  another server. There are many NAS devices specially designed for small businesses. Excellent for  <a href="http://www.backupassist.com/news/network-backup.html">network backup</a>.</p>

<h2>Backup to REV drive</h2>
<p>In April 2004, Iomega released the REV drive - a new storage device that has greater capacity than tape and is 5 to 8 times faster. Key features are:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.backupassist.com/news/server-backup-to-rev-drive.html">backup to REV 
drive</a> is much faster than tape backup and have higher capacity</li>
<li>REV drive units are more durable than tape</li> 
<li>While tape requires regular cleaning, no cleaning is required for REV drive units</li>
</ul>


<p>Backup to REV drive may in fact prove more cost-effective for your business than tape, depending on your backup scheme and other factors. Otherwise, <a href="http://www.backupassist.com/news/backup-to-rev.html">REV backup</a> is very  similar to tape backup in principle.</p>

<h2>Final notes</h2>

<p>As always, invest in a quality backup program. Many backup program will support a number of backup devices, so there's no need to buy specialist <a href="http://www.backupassist.com/news/rev-backup-software.html">REV backup software</a> or <a href="../news/backup-to-nas.html">NAS backup</a> software.</p>

<p>> This article was brought to you by <a href="http://www.backupassist.com">BackupAssist - data backup software</a></p>
<!-- // End of Article Code // -->